The Invasion
by StreetFlare
Summary: Set two years after The Sickness, Scourge leads an army into Mobius, with new allies. Will our heroes be able to stop Scourge, or will Mobius fall to his latest plot? Written between 2010-2011
1. Prologue

**Book Three: The Invasion**

**Prologue**

_Tap, tap, tap._

Scourge lay in his prison cell, underneath the window. He smirked. When he was freed, he'd destroy his counterpart. Still, prison life wasn't so bad. Three meals a day, not the nice stuff he had as king but not the worst stuff either. There was regular exercise, and a chance to talk up the lady guards and prisoners, not that there were too many lady guards.

_Tap, tap, tap._

Scourge shook his head. Noises like that weren't common in the No Zone. It was a bustling city with no seasons for crying out loud! There was no sound like snow melting and dripping from a tree, or someone tapping on the windows of his ground-floor cell. Scourge looked at his inhibiting shackles, wishing there was a method of escape.

_Tap, tap, fwap!_

Scourge blinked. That was the sound of a whip! Who did he know that used a whip? There was muffled talking, then a sound like birds chirping was heard. Scourge smiled. How he'd missed going for walks with Fiona in the spring when the birds were chirping and they could discard their regal manners in a way some would find repulsive. His daydream was interrupted by the chirping of the birds getting louder. There must be a thousand of them! Scourge thought. Somewhere in his brain, it clicked. A Thousand Birds…that could only mean one thing. Scourge leapt across his room as the wall practically exploded behind him. He turned, his signature smirk returning to his face: there stood an echidna, fully dressed in golden armor, the remaining sparks from his Chidori flickering around his metallic armor.

"Sir, we really should get out of here. The Zone Cops will be here in seconds!" the echidna mentioned, snapping Scourge's inhibitor braces with pure strength. Fiona ran over, planting a kiss on Scourge's cheek as the echidna induced a Chaos Control, sending the three of them away from the No Zone in front of Zonic and the Zone Cops. Scourge blinked as soon as they arrived in Moebius: they had arrived back in Castle Acorn, but with a crown and jeweled sword on the throne, and all of the Suppression Squad and allied groups formed up before the throne, as if awaiting someone…

"We've been …persuading members of the Suppression Squad and other groups to return, Scourge. Or should I say…your highness," the echidna said, bowing before Scourge.

"Now, now, Striker. As my adopted son, you don't need to do that." Scourge responded, taking Fiona by his side and walking down to the throne with her in hand. Alicia and Miles both looked at him, then smiled, although their eyes were blank, as if hypnotized. Scourge didn't care, taking up the sword and the belt it was attached to, fixing it upon his waist, before Alicia took the crown and stood before him. She hesitated, but Scourge drew his sword, planting it into the carpet before him, and kneeling. Alicia still hesitated, but a nod from Fiona had her lower the crown upon Scourge's head, then turning to face the crowd.

"I present to you…KING SCOURGE!" The crowd cheered, awaiting Scourge's first decree as king. He stood, and Alicia moved aside. He cleared his throat, then spoke clearly.

"As King, I say we shall finish what we started and overthrow Mobius! Their lands shall be ours! They will fall, and WE SHALL RULE!" This statement had the entire crowd cheering and dancing. Striker stood by the newly crowned king's side.

"We need to capture all the different kinds of power gem we can get our hands on for you to finally finish Sonic. Anarchy Beryl is already being collected, but soon we'll need more. I had scouts find at least six more worlds, which will all need to be raided."

"Sure, kid. Hey, deal with that for now." Scourge straightened his back, standing with his normal arrogant stance. "I've got an invasion to plan."


	2. Hunt for the Blade

**Part One**

**Chapter One: Hunt for the Blade**

Will stretched, looking around. It had been almost six months since the last crisis, the problems with Jacob, and the relapse of his disease from opening all eight gates, which had only been minor in comparison, but still had taken almost a fortnight to recover from. Now, he was challenging himself and Tails' abilities with scanners in order to be able to break Ronan out of the Mercian prison he had spent the last couple of months in, in case Tails' appeal failed.

"Do you read me, Will?" Tails asked, sounding stressed.

"Loud and clear, Tails." Will responded, fixing his mic where it was. "You know how I'm going to get into this monolith?" Indeed, before him was what looked like a pyramid.

"Well, you can tunnel through, but you have to be careful. It's been boobytrapped. I can detect explosive seals, active traps and the Guardian's Seal, as your dad and Sonic said would be there."

"Guardian's Seal…what the heck?" Will groaned, confused by what Tails was saying.

"Basically, as soon as you get into the room with the swords, the seal will create a perfect doppelganger of you, which then uses the swords at their maximum possible strength. This means…"

"One heck of a sword fight. Alright, keep me posted, Tails. I'm going in." Will cracked his knuckles, taking a few steps towards the pyramid, before launching himself into the ground, the same as his father always did, using the very powerful muscles in his upper body and arms to drag himself through the dirt and rock, even with the two swords attached to his belt and his denim jacket restricting movement. Quickly, he hit a wall of rubble that he struggled to dig through, but a pair of powerful punches broke a hole in the subterranean wall, allowing Will to clamber through. He shook violently, forcing all the clumps of dirt and little bugs out of his dreadlocks and jacket, before taking in his surroundings. The room was dark, but flames flowing from Will's hands provided adequate light for him to see where he was. Around him were blocks of stone, larger than anything he had seen in temples or pyramids on Angel Island before. He moved, letting the orange flames around his fists light up the corridor. He saw the big black letters on the wall, and decided to turn around. No sooner than he did that, the entire corridor section ahead of him burst into flame and caved in as the explosive seal the letters had denoted detonated the dangerously well-designed ancient explosives. Will raced around the next corner as the corridor collapsed behind him, finally reaching a pit, which he easily glided across as the tunnel collapsed behind him.

"Whatsay I take this path instead?" Will asked himself quietly, a smile evident on his face as he ventured deeper into the pyramid. After a further hour, with no radio contact from Tails due to the thickness of the monolithic structure, not to mention the perpetual shadows around that were blocking his sight and the common deathtraps littered throughout the corridors, Will was considering knocking down every single wall in his path as he made for the exit of this dank place when he found a round chamber, with what looked like an alter or plinth, with a sword in scabbard lying on the top. Will scratched his head. It was said that there were two swords here, not one. He took a few steps into the room to have a better look, when suddenly ancient writing on the plinth started to glow, building up to a red-orange sort of color. The glow was blinding, and Will struggled to look at it, bringing one of his gloved hands into the way to block the glaring light to see something amazing. Where there had been an empty room, there now stood a perfect representation of himself, still being assembled by the energy at play. It turned, still being finished, grabbing the scabbard off the top of the plinth and drawing the blade.

"Are you worthy?" it asked, before holding the hilt in a precise way, and turning it in a specific way, splitting the blade into two swords, each with a dragon motif on the hilt, etched in gold on the red fabric. That's when the armor started to appear. Large metallic pieces of red-orange armor materialized, attaching themselves to his body, starting with his feet and moving up to his waist. The image of the saber's sheath rotated to point along his leg, before fusing into the armor. The scabbard which the two swords had lain in melted into the armor now covering the copy's hands, reappearing over the top of the Guy'viroth broadsword and sheath. The armor rapidly formed, covering his arms and torso within seconds. The final things to form were the slotted helmet that appeared above his muzzle, and a cape sprouted from the back of his neck. Will froze when he saw the emblem on that red cape: embroidered in gold thread was the image of two dragons, intertwined around a single point.

"Are you worthy?" it repeated, before racing at him at an amazing speed. Unfortunately, Will was just as fast, and stepped aside before it reached him, whipping his Guy'viroth broadsword out of it's sheath and bringing it down on the back of the clone's armored head with a metallic clang. The armored clone spun, it's dual blades spinning and lashing out wildly. Will drew his saber with his off hand while still fending off the wild but controlled strikes from his opponent. He had heard of the Bes'kad method, where the practitioner gives up all thought but one: END. He never thought he'd have to fight a practitioner of that style, but here he was.

Horizontal sweep! Overhead cut! Overhead backhand! Side jab! The speed of the strikes the clone was using was intense, the sign of a natural. However, it's abilities stemmed from Will's own, and he was keeping up, and even putting pressure on the clone, but still only defending. Suddenly, he flipped over the clone, bringing in the hilt of the saber in a sudden punching motion to the back of the helmet, creating a loud CLANG as it impacted. The clone turned, but not fast enough. Will went on the assault, using both swords in amazing motions, striking the doppelganger with sudden and sharp strikes, before it could get it's swords into place, before smiling.

"Let's finish this!" he cried, charging his Guy'viroth broadsword with Chaos Energy before stabbing it through the clone's armor. It stopped, and raised its visor.

"You are worthy," it muttered, before disintegrating in the same orange glow and leaving the swords on the plinth, rejoined and back in their sheath. Will walked forward, taking the red and gold scabbard in his hand as he examined the swords, taking in the impossibly well forged blades and hand-stitched hilt covers, with the dragons intertwined, unlike when separated where the dragons were separate, then looked up at the roof. There was a hole there, showing what appeared to be a way out. Will ran over, leaping up there, then ran out onto a plateau. He grinned, as suddenly Tails, as well as his dad and Sonic, started yelling into the radio.

"Guys, not so loud! I was in the middle of the place, but I got the swords. Never seen anything like them before. Two swords that fuse into one. Intertwined dragons on the hilt when combined, separate when not, and the transformation that the guardian used was amazing."

"Will, just get back here. We got word on Ronan's appeal: it failed. Again. Tails is taking this even further, getting G.U.N. involved, but…"

"Wait, did you say two swords that fused into one, emblazoned with dragons?" Sonic asked, cutting Knuckles off.

"Yeah, and the guy used the Bes'kad technique. Only managed to get the drop on him with a fluke."

"Those are the Twin Dragon Dao Blades! They were called lost for hundreds of years even before I received Excalibur! They are awesome!" Sonic crowed, before Tails cut him off.

"Just get back, Will. We'll need you to get ready, because the prison is going to be harder to get into and out of."

"Rodger." Will clipped the Dao blades to his belt, then Chaos Controlled away, leaving the amazing pyramid behind.


	3. Dreams

**Chapter Two: Dreams**

Knuckles sat at the entrance of the burrow Will and he had dug the previous day, watching the rain clean the Mercian countryside. Within the decent-sized burrow were Shadow, Shade and Will, with Rouge and Bianca in a specially designed tent for bats outside. Knuckles turned, hearing noise inside, but it was Will tossing and turning in his sleep. Knuckles turned back to face the outside, worried about his son.

Will shivered, as he walked inside the Master Emerald Shrine in his dream. His dad stood there, looking relaxed.

"Hey, Dad, what's going on?" Will asked, but Knuckles turned to him, confused.

"Who the hell are you? Hey, Pac, Mace, Rosy! We've got someone here!" Will scratched his head, before turning to see a green echidna, taller and broader than himself walk in. Will spun, but behind him was blocked by another echidna, this one looking almost identical to Knuckles bar the massive pair of bat wings on his back. Will turned again, looking for an escape route, but a hedgehog with hair somewhere between Amy and Sonic's cut him off.

"Ok, Mace, Rosy, Pac, keep him here. We'll hold him here until the Brotherhood and Sonic Heroes reach us." Knuckles stated, watching Will carefully. Will started shivering, as his brain took in what was happening, but it made no sense. Quickly, he started to open the gates. Mace froze, motioning to Rosy and Pac.

"He seems to be charging Chaos Energy! Be careful, he might try something!" Try something Will did, with his fur turning orange, his streaks yellow and his eyes red.

"He has a super form!" Knuckles roared, his fur turning green in response. Mace, Pac and Rosy all started to change as well, responding to Will's transformation. Will opened his eyes to find a set of fist spurs hovering mere centimeters from his face. Chaos Knuckles faced him. Will looked confused at the others. Pac was red-orange; slightly darker than Will was, with his hands glowing with emerald light. Rosy was bright yellow, while Mace was a startling blue. The four of them pressed in closer, waiting for Will to make a move. Will dropped to the ground, and then launched himself through Pac's legs with his heightened speed.

"So, you're fast for an echidna. Rosy?" Knuckles motioned after Will, and Rosy ran after him. Even though he was flying, Will knew Rosy would catch him, so he spun, ready to defend himself, when he appeared. Standing tall, his body was covered by golden ancient echidna armor. Rosy stopped in front of him, as the trio of echidnas ran up.

"Enerjak…I killed you!" Knuckles roared, throwing a punch at Enerjak, which impacted on his armor without damage.

"And you did in this world. However, I am not Enerjak," the echidna said calmly, before turning to Will. "You are not my target. The Chaos Emeralds of this world are." Will found the voice familiar, but couldn't place where he knew it from. Pac and Mace both attacked as one, Mace with a Chaos Thunder, Pac with a Chaos Wind. Neither managed to penetrate the echidna's armor, and he absorbed Mace's Chaos Thunder without a second thought, before suddenly knocking Pac down with a lightning bolt, which leapt from his fingers and struck Pac in the chest. Rosy screamed, running at Enerjak, who grabbed the back of her head and transferred her kinetic energy to her body as electricity, knocking her out in a single blow. Pac tried to get up, but a second lightning bolt kept him down. Mace leapt, using his wings to keep himself in the air, before raising his hands at the same time as his father.

"CHAOS NOVA!" they roared, launching a massive ball of Chaos Energy mixed with flames and lightning at the Enerjak look-alike. His hand started to spark with electricity, before he dashed at them, straight through the Chaos Nova to knock both echidnas down with a single strike. He then turned to Will.

"Soon, my friend, you shall meet the same fate. Soon…"

Will sat bolt upright in bed, struggling to keep himself calm after that dream. He got up, walking a little shakily, before standing next to his father at the entrance to the burrow.

"Bad dream, Will?" Knuckles asked, taking great care of being gentle with his son's obviously frayed nerves. Will nodded.

"I saw you, but you didn't recognize me. There was an echidna and hedgehog there, as well as…an echidna-bat hybrid. They all transformed when I was there, and they attacked me after I went Blazing. I ran, and the hedgehog girl chased me…"

"So, there was a female hedgehog, a couple of echidnas and a hybrid, and they powered up after you did. You tried to escape, but the hedgehog chased you. Go on, just making sure I understood everything."

"Well, suddenly this echidna in golden armor appeared, whom they all called Enerjak. He said he wasn't, and he wasn't there for me or them but the Chaos Emeralds, and beat the hedgehog and the echidna called Pac with electricity, before the hybrid and you attacked him with something called a Chaos Nova, but he ran through the attack with a Lightning Blade and knocked those two down, and said that soon he would come for us." Knuckles was silent, still watching over the quiet rain. Will started to get annoyed, and punched his dad. Knuckles turned, noticing that Will had retracted his knuckle spurs before punching him.

"Well?" Will stressed, looking tired. Knuckles looked back out.

"I don't know what it means, or if it even means anything, but I think we should watch, and wait. He said soon, so we'll find out, whether we want to or not."

* * *

><p>AN - The dream in chapter is set in an another authors works - Wiramu, and his Sonic Heroes series. Thanks to him for allowing me to use the characters!


	4. Freedom for the Innocent

**Chapter Three: Freedom for the Innocent**

Shadow and Shade sat in the trench Knuckles and Will had dug for them, watching the prison. Rouge and Bianca weren't to far away, about five hundred meters away in the dirt. Will and Knuckles were underground somewhere, tunneling under the prison to try to find an entry point. Shadow sighed.

"What's on your mind, Dad?" Shade asked, still full of youthful energy. Shadow smiled, admiring his son's tenacity, before responding.

"I'm not as young as I used to be. I mean, I can't sit in a trench for hours without getting a little stiff in the old joints. If only we got the signal to proceed with freeing Ronan."

"Signal?" Shade asked, confusion evident on his face. Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but it was that moment that Knuckles and Will both emerged from the ground, sending a spray of dirt straight into his mouth, making him gag. He glared at the two echidnas as he dry-heaved and spat to get the dirt out of his mouth.

"I hate you so much right now. What's the news?"

"Well, there's a major problem: a stone floor. Will and I could break through, but it will be noisy. Also, there are signs of a LOT of echidnas having been here recently. I counted almost thirty different tunnels that we passed, and some of them were still occupied." Knuckles said, while Will just yawned, his red-rimmed eyes showing how tired he truly was. Shade motioned to the girls, who crawled over as quick as they could.

"Basically, we can't get in from below without making a tonne of noise, and we can't go in the front door because that's kind of foolish." Shade explained, but stopped when he noticed Shadow and Knuckles grinning. "What is it? Was it something I said?"

"Yeah. We go in through the front door. Chaos Shroud! Knuckles, Will and I go in with Chaos Shroud, grab Ronan, and get out by any means possible, which is likely just Chaos Control. How does that sound?"

"Good, aside for the part that you left three of us out. I can't use Chaos powers, so that makes sense, but Shade and Bianca can. They're our protégé's, Shadow. Our children. They should go with you." Rouge pressed, and Knuckles saw Shadow mull it over. He turned to see Will, but Will was already halfway invisible. Knuckles started to let himself become almost ghostly, as Shadow continued the debate with his wife. Quickly, Knuckles was ready. He moved silently, and could see a very pale washed-out Will beside him, pacing him. The two of them reached the door at the very same moment that the wall practically exploded no more than five meters away from the father-son team. Astonished, the echidna duo dropped their Chaos Shrouds in a scene that made no sense to any of them. All around the place, armed foxes, echidnas, wolves and more exotic species appeared, pointing guns at the towers. Out of the hole walked a single black and red hedgehog at the lead of a group of armored echidnas and a single black and green fox towards the back, calmly and arrogantly smoking a cigar.

"Ronan!" Will exclaimed, stunned but not surprised to see the fox in the middle of all this carnage.

"This is more like it! Two rescue attempts simultaneous…or just about. Hang on; it's been six months!" Ronan turned angrily to the hedgehog amongst the soldiers. "You better have an explanation, Tritec, or my mood will be spoiled."

"Sir, we would have been here sooner, but we were invaded by an echidna in golden armor and a group of raggedy soldiers." Will stood, astonished as the hedgehog continued, "They attacked the mine, then one of our storage facilities. Surprisingly, it was the one that held the Exa-Diamond and the ETD."

"ETD?" Shadow asked, overcoming the surprise of having an armed fox and echidna appear right next to him.

"Energy Transference Device. This isn't good. I'm going to have to keep my revenge on Sally Acorn until later. Right now, we need to get to Castle Acorn, as soon as possible. If I'm right, than this world is going to be hit by an assault force. Tritec, take most of our forces back to Col'nesia and help out any repairs and such. Those you leave, come with me. We're going to need to persuade the king of the Acorn Kingdom that there is a serious threat on it's way, and that defenses need to be set." Ronan started to order, but the hedgehog just nodded, setting up a single device on the ground. He depressed a few buttons, and a large orange portal appeared from it.

"Vorstec Portal open. Right, Brigades Four through Twelve, come with me home. Elite Brigade One and Brigades Two and Three, stay with the commander." Tritec commanded, with majority of the soldiers except a couple of groups of echidnas, foxes and Arctic Wolves staying behind. Will walked over to Ronan, treading lightly, almost fearfully towards the fox.

"Ronan, I had a dream where that same echidna raided another world for its Chaos and Master Emeralds. They knocked out the equivalents of some of us, and said to me that we are soon." Will admitted, not letting Ronan know just how startled he was.

"I know. I had a similar dream while in prison. I saw my people fighting, and losing against wave after wave of beings, lead by an echidna. I don't know why I passed it off, except I thought that it was a metaphor or a future event, not one concurrent with the time I was in. Still, we better ready your people, because I feel that what you saw was right, and Mobius will be attacked soon. We just have to be ready for it."

"And if we aren't?" Will asked, starting to feel the sinking feeling that he already knew what Ronan was going to say.

"If we aren't, we better put up a damn good fight. They beat the guardian and my armies. Who knows what they'll do with you."


	5. Confrontation

**Chapter Four: Confrontation**

Ronan burst into the throne room of New Mobotropolis castle, flanked by Knuckles and Will. Following them was the Col'nesian Militia members assigned to their case. King Elias stood in annoyance, but tried to block the people he was in conference with from seeing Ronan. Unfortunately, he failed.

"You!" Queen Sally roared. At Ronan's trial, it was revealed that Sally and Monkey Khan had been married for as long as Sonic and Amy, and their two kids both took after their mother.

"Hello, ''Princess''." Ronan spat, treating the words as if they left a foul taste in his mouth, taunting the queen. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning stuck directly before Ronan's feet, fired by the other figure by King Elias, Monkey Khan. Instantly, the Col'nesian Militia soldiers all aimed weapons at the hostile monkey, but Ronan just gestured to them, and they lowered their weapons.

"Your Highnesses. I come with news of an impending invasion, but from whom I don't know."

"I already know. The Mercians reported it yesterday." Sally replied, acid in her voice. "Close to five hundred soldiers from your homeworld broke into a prison and freed you and a number of other dangerous prisoners. If that doesn't count as part of an invasion, I don't know what does." Ronan growled, and started to advance on her, but Knuckles grabbed his shoulder and physically restrained the fox until he could regain his composure.

"Ah, that's just hyperbole. We only freed you, and rigged up shields to keep the other prisoners in. She's lying. Probably been watching daytime television." One of the elite soldiers grinned, before another hit him.

"Shut your mouth, soldier! She's got the power to have us all cast out of the planet if she wishes, and you're making it worse."

"No, it's fine. I got that report from King Rob himself." Sally walked towards Ronan, her eyes shooting lasers into him.

"Want me to tell you where to stick that report?" Ronan countered, drawing himself up to full height, slightly taller than Sally was. Monkey Khan walked down, and stood by his wife. "Heh, she'll probably get her girlfriends together and have a better time than she does with you, your highness." Ronan said, watching both of them. Sally twitched, while King Khan got angrier.

"How dare you attack my wife like that? She's a loyal queen, but you probably don't know about loyalty, _murderer_."

"Ken, let me deal with this." Sally said to her husband, before slapping Ronan around the face. Will felt the massive surge of energy course through Ronan, as did Knuckles who put more effort into restraining the genius fox.

"You speak scandals. Now who watches daytime TV? All I have to say is…get out. We will provide you with an access point, but you have to get out of this world in the next twenty-four hours. If what I've heard is correct, then your world is under attack. You should head back, or there might not be anything left to go back to."

"Are you threatening me, your highness?" Ronan asked, his eyes flickering white from their normal gray, but they quickly returned to normal.

"Does it look like it? Use that mind of yours and tell me. If you refuse, then I'm not to blame if you don't go home for a long while. Choose wisely." Ronan was quiet, weighing up the options.

"Give us an hour to prepare. The gear for us to return takes that long to set up. But remember this: when the actual threat arrives, you won't be able to call on our help, and you will want to," he answered finally, "You really will." Sally laughed.

"Fine. Set up your device in the courtyard. We'll be watching." Ronan glared at her for a while, but turned and left. Everyone else turned and followed him but Knuckles. Will turned to stay with his father, but Knuckles waved him off. Will turned and ran after the Col'nesians as Knuckles started yelling at Sally and Monkey Khan, and Elias turned to the window, shedding a tear at the monster his sister had become.

"Ronan, what was with your eyes? They flickered after she slapped you." Will asked, as he and Ronan stood on a balcony, watching the soldiers set up the Vorstec device.

"You know how I made the inhibitor rings for you? Well, mine inhibit rage. When I get angry enough, it starts to filter through the gates, and transform me."

"Wait, you said transformations are fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh gates!" Will pointed out. Ronan sighed, still watching the soldiers and ignoring Will's prying eyes.

"I only have four gates, so each gate holds back a transformation. Unlike you, I don't have my own energy style locked behind these gates, but rather a separate 'being' of sorts, called Terra. It is me, but not really. The Eggman of my world tried to transform me into a powerful military leader called Terraclos. They forced me to become him, with constant testosterone and adrenaline levels to sustain the transformation. Unfortunately for him, I broke free and pretty much destroyed the city, Dosa Sigma, within seconds. Somehow, he tranquilized me and created the first inhibitor gate, and sealed Terra behind it, but somehow created another stage of it, and so on until I had four gates. When I get angry, the adrenaline and testosterone levels start to climb again, and I become it again because the gate can't hold it back. It's Col'nesia's greatest weapon."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Will admitted, seeing Ronan stare off into space.

"Don't be. If it wasn't for the Terra, as it's now known, we'd still be under Eggman's control." Ronan's tails swung, then started to spin as he flew down to his soldiers. Will leapt over the barrier and followed him down to speak to the men.

"Look, Sal, we grew up together, and so we should trust each other…"

"Should, Knuckles. You were at Sonic and Amy's wedding. So was I. I can't stand either of them now. So carefree. At least I still feel responsibility for my people, my home, my family. Sonic doesn't."

"Sonic does. You haven't spoken to him in years. He feels great responsibility for his parents, his wife and kids, his friends and his community. You want the truth? Will had a dream about an invasion in another world. Ronan's people brought news of an invasion on their world. They were stealing Chaos Emeralds and equivalents. We thought you might want to know that, so you could start plotting a defense, with a great tactical mind on our side. Instead, you exiled him. Is that what this is all about? The fact that he ordered the death of enemies? Or the fact that Sonic married Amy?" Knuckles was angry now, ready to punch either Sally or Monkey Khan.

"All of you, calm down. It's time for the Col'nesians departure." Elias advised. Knuckles leaped out the window, gliding down to where his son and former rival stood.

"Goodbye guys. If that invasion does occur, the Monolith should keep tactical lines open for otherworldly aid." Ronan advised, a faint smile visible on his muzzle. "I only wish that I could have commanded in person. Easier than having a Collaborator or another person commanding in your place."

"Bye, Ronan. I'll see if I can get you access to Mobius again, although it will have to wait for now until Sally's calmed down." Knuckles said, shaking Ronan's hand.

"Don't worry, Ronan, we'll keep the planet safe." Will smiled, with a nod of the head in farewell. Ronan returned the nod, before activating the Vorstec projector.

"Right, we shall depart! Farewell, Mobius, until next time!" Ronan lead the soldiers into the bright orange glowing portal, which swallowed itself as the last of them came through. No sooner had they left than a messenger raced up, tired and obviously startled.

"News for the royal family and the Guardian! There's been a confirmed sighting of a massive army of Moebians in Circuit Park! It's an invasion!" Knuckles looked up at the royal throne room, before speaking.

"Forward that information to the Monolith, and put the call out to all freedom fighter groups. This time, Scourge isn't going to roll over and play dead. This time, it's for keeps."


	6. Arrival of Fate

**Part Two**

**Chapter Five: Arrival of Fate**

Scourge strode out of the portal from Moebius with purpose, into the middle of Circus Park. Eggman's robots lay in a pile nearby, with a white and green hedgehog sitting atop the pile.

"Yo, Sparkle! Get down here!" Scourge yelled. The hedgehog fired the jets in his air shoes, boosting himself into the air and landing near Scourge.

"Yes, King Scourge?" he asked, with the grin still on his face, as if the sun was shining out of it.

"Look, don't take this the wrong way, but could you go do something other than sit around on that pile of junk? You're annoying the king."

"Sure, my king! I'll go transport some supplies!" yelled the Anti-Shadow as he dashed off. It was then that Miles walked up.

"This is just too easy. I would have thought your counterpart would be here already causing us trouble, or maybe one of the many other Mobians styling themselves as 'heroes'. I swear, this is just a gift of destiny…or maybe the arrival of fate." Little did Miles know that another fox was speaking that same line at the same time.

"Maybe it's the arrival of fate, Will!" Kyle cheered, watching his friend's eyes. "You dreamed that an echidna invading another world warned you that we would be invaded, and it happened. You normally dream that you and Maddy are married, so maybe that'll happen!"

"What about you and Crystal?" Will teased, knowing just what Kyle got up to with his cat girlfriend.

"Wha…what are you talking about Will?" Kyle asked, blushing.

"You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about stuff I promised never to tell your parents. The reason you Chaos Control around in the middle of the night. The reason you blush every time you hear her name." Will smiled, even though the Monolith around them was full of training Freedom Fighters and busy workers. Kyle looked away, then looked back at Will, with an unusual light in his eyes.

"Will…what if I told you that I was going to be a dad?" Will's jaw dropped.

"A dad? Congratulations! Tell Crystal I'm happy for her as well!" Will cheered, giving his younger friend a big hug. "Start the family young and keep it large, huh?"

"Something like that. Anyway, we find out our assignments today! I wonder whose team I'll be on?" Kyle said, worming his way out of his friend's hug. "Man, you must work out too much!" It was at that point that a number of beings walked in and everybody quieted down. The screens came alive with live feeds from teams who couldn't make it to the Monolith, including Shadow, Rouge and their kids, who'd stayed in Mercia to tell King Rob of the impending invasion. Will recognized his father, Tails and Sonic amongst the planners, which also included former Grandmaster Dimitri, Kommissar Lien-Da and Walt Wallaby from the Downunda Freedom Fighters. The final member of the group, a human in military uniform came forward to the podium, as a final view screen opened to reveal Ronan.

"Hello. I am Commander Abraham Towers, Commander of the Guardian Unit of Nations. We are leading the group. This is the current 'team' breakdown. Each group is being assigned a source of power to guard. It's being brought up on-screen now." Will quickly scanned through the list on the screen. His father was guarding the Master Emerald, while his mother was going out to Lake Silverwind with a Super Emerald. A lot of teams were three-to-five members, with a fair few solo teams. Maddy was assigned with her mother to go to Deep Woods with a Mystic Ring. Will froze when he read his team, which Kyle read aloud next to him.

"Will the Echidna, Kyle the Fox, Stave the Hedgehog, Daniel the Hedgehog and Belle D'Coolette, assigned to guard a single Chaos Emerald. Why so many people, when the Master Emerald has only a single guard?" Ronan managed to hear this comment, and he grimaced on-screen, before explaining.

"I might be in Col'nesia, but it doesn't mean that I'm not helping. That is mostly because Knuckles and Sonic wanted to be the sole guards of something. We tried to have Knuckles take you as his side, and Tails have Kyle as part of the trio guarding the Monolith's massive collection of power items, but nobody wanted to break that team. Strategically, it's a major target, because you're going to be guarding a Gaia Temple, itself a source of tremendous power, enough to recharge a Chaos Emerald. With you guarding it, I have no doubt that it will be held."

"I see…" Will responded, by no means sure that he happy to be stuck in a massive temple for ages.

"These are your orders, so get to them!" Commander Towers shouted, and everyone grabbed their bags and started to leave. As Will drifted past Maddy, he gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Good luck!"

"You too!" she yelled back, following her mum away. Will flicked up his old backpack, then went over to his team.

"Fancy a walk, boys and girls?" Will asked, the grin on his face making it clear that he was joking. Stave looked at him dryly, as Belle and Daniel just shrugged.

"Actually, I thought Stave and I would walk, the rest of you fly." Daniel stated.

"Daniel, he's joking with you. He can Chaos Control. He'll just jump us there."

"Oh…" Daniel looked at Will blankly, as he played with his platinum-blond fur. "Well, go ahead. My sister won't mind." Will opened his mouth to ask who the sister was, but changed his mind midway and instead said "Ok, grab on." Instantly, the five teens disappeared in a blue flash.

Scourge looked over the circus-themed field in front of himself, as the Moebians bowed before him. Striker stood at his side, and Fiona Fox had disappeared, claiming that she was collecting the Destructix to stand by their side, but Scourge didn't care. This was going to be the greatest victory of his life.

"Are we to take the Master Emerald straight away, your highness?" Striker asked, impatiently.

"Patience, Striker. First, one of our mobs spotted your counterpart in the Gaia Temple near Adabat. You should join them and get the emerald from there now, to save our time later on."

"Certainly, your highness. They shall know defeat." Striker said, leaving. Scourge looked over his assembled troops, before bellowing at them.

"You know your jobs! GET GOING!" Quickly, the Moebians dispersed, hunting their counterparts and the emeralds they guarded. Scourge smirked, preparing himself to get moving to find Sonic. Soon, he would beat him once, then bring about his own final victory. That one word practically rung throughout Mobius. Soon.


	7. Speedsters and Shadows

**Chapter Six: Speedsters and Shadows**

Sonic stood in the middle of nowhere. Literally. All around him was ocean, and a metal prison. Oceanus Prison. Nobody knew who built it, but whoever did must have done a good job, Sonic thought. Nearby sat a yellow plane, lined in orange, nicknamed the Super Sonic Starfighter. Sonic smiled, his grin offsetting the uncomfortable situation of being surrounded by ocean. He turned once; to make sure Scourge hadn't arrived and found the emerald yet, then turned again. That second turn was all the time that was needed before a green sole of a shoe came flying across his face, throwing him to the ground.

"HA! Now that's what I call speed!" came the inevitable voice, the one Sonic was expecting.

"Call that speed? That's nothing! I'll show you speed!" Sonic roared back at his counterpart, who grinned, flicking down his blue sunglasses as he lowered his head and dropped down into a spindash, launching himself at Sonic. Just as quickly, Sonic dived forwards, under the spindash, before retaliating with a rapid stream of kicks, which Scourge only just managed to block and dodge. Quickly, Scourge leapt up again, seeming to hover before launching himself at Sonic. The blue blur stuck his hands onto the cold, metal floor, and threw himself into the air, foot first. The two hedgehogs struck each other, bouncing away just as quickly.

"So, you're still using those old tricks." Scourge commented, letting his green fur shake.

"So, you're still that arrogant jerk I beat many times before." Sonic retorted, his quills bristling in anger. Scourge scowled, before charging at his counterpart again. Sonic used a breakdance technique to throw himself to his feet, and then raced at Scourge, head down and ready to hit. The two hedgehogs hit each other, went flying backwards but bounced and spindashed each other, each hit sending them flying like a pair of balls, but they kept attacking each other as their duel wore on.

Down in Mercia, Team Dark bolted into the castle, hunting for King Rob.

"Bianca, go with your mother. Shade, stick with me." Shadow ordered, hurling a Chaos Spear directly into a Moebian that tried to stop him. Quickly, the two bats in the team flew off towards a nearby turret, leaving Shade and Shadow to get in through the main door.

"How are we going to get in, dad?" Shade asked, looking at the cast-iron palisade and the solid wood gate behind it with apprehension. Shadow smiled at his son's apprehension, before responding.

"We knock." Shadow's hands arced out, wrapping around the solid metal bars of the palisade as Shade watched his back. He grunted, trying to avoid letting Shade see the strain represented on his face as he put all his strength into bending the iron bars, which started to groan and bend, then snapped part-way through. Shadow looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Shade still behind him, but saw instead a pair of Moebians throwing punches at Shade, who was dodging rapidly. Suddenly, Shade lashed out with a powerful spinning kick, kicking both Moebians at once and sending them flying. Shadow smiled as Shade ran over.

"I see you've learned a few new tricks, son." Shadow said, letting pride at his son's strength filter into his voice. Shade smiled back, before looking at the gate.

"What you waiting for, dad?" Shade asked, smirking. "Too tired from bending the bars?"

"Hahaha. Nope, just making sure you were paying attention so we both go in together."

"Riiight." Shade clenched his fists, before curling into a spinball. "Ready to try one of Sonic's rapid entry tricks?"

"Right. Lets…GO!" Shadow shouted, kicking Shade directly forwards through the gate.

"GOALLL!" Shade roared as he landed, uncurling and knocking down a Moebian who'd got in. Suddenly, he stopped.

"What's the problem, Shade?" Shadow asked, before seeing the window had been destroyed by a grappling hook, and Moebians were climbing in, masses of 'disposable' troops. Quickly, he dropped into a combat position, then realized that the Moebians wasn't what Shade was looking at. She stepped lithely down the stairs, wearing a silky purple satin dress with gold neck and waistbands, and a rapier held lightly in her echidna palm. Suddenly, she swung herself onto the banister and slid down, catching a Moebian soldier in the neck with her foot as she landed in front of Shade and Shadow, between them and the Moebians. Close up Shade noticed the neckband was in fact Princess Joy of Mercia's royal necklace, this was either the princess or a masquerading handmaiden. Shade didn't care. His heart rate got higher as he watched the young echidna charge at the Moebians, knocking two down with a single spinning kick, and then blocking a sword stroke lightly with her rapier. Suddenly, and to Shade's astonishment, a second echidna appeared from behind the Moebians, from up the rope. Taller and broader, with red fur in comparison to the girl's orange-tan, he hefted a massive two-handed broadsword as if it weighed nothing, knocking down Moebians between himself and the girl. He wore a brown hooded shirt, like the king. Quickly, he rushed at Shadow and Shade, tapping his fingers on the hilt of the blade, but Shadow raised a hand and stopped the blade on his palm.

"Who are you?" the echidna demanded, furious. Shade could see his eyes were burning from the inside, but Shadow didn't even flinch.

"Shadow the Hedgehog, leader of Team Dark from the Guardian Unit of Nations, protectors of the United Federation. With me is my son, Shade."

"Bad place for work experience, kid. I'm Jon, eldest son of King Rob and Mari-An. That's my little sister, Joy." Jon gestured with his sword at the young princess, who walked over.

"I'm not that little, bro," she retorted. Shade blushed slightly as she smiled at him. Shadow gave his son a look, but then returned his gaze to Jon.

"We were sent out here upon the Moebian invasion to secure and hold the local Chaos Emerald. Can you take us to it?" Jon shrugged, seeking out Shadow's gaze.

"I could, if it was still here. My father took it with him to Lake Silverwind, to the east. The other source of power is the Albion Chaos Emerald, and Albion's under siege. I just came from there. Mum's still there with our brother." Jon shook his head "There's no way to get to Albion now, even with your support. Albion has fallen." Rouge and Bianca flew over.

"No Moebians over on the east side, Shadow." Rouge reported, eyeing off the large mound of unconscious and semiconscious Moebians near the stairs. Bianca smiled at Joy and Jon, each of whom reacted differently. Jon grunted and rolled his eyes, while Joy smiled back. Shadow watched the display, then returned his view to his wife, taking in the shattered stained glass window, the damaged stone walls and the Moebians lying on the staircase and floor in mounds where Joy and Jon had left them. He turned to Jon.

"Feel like a trip to New Mobotropolis? We need to drop Shade and Bianca back off there ready for stage two deployment anyway on our way to Central City to report to Commander Towers." Jon thought about it, stroking the well-groomed goatee on his jaw before responding.

"Well, if Joy goes, I'm going with her. No point in guarding this castle anyway. Albion furnishes this place too lavishly, so it's going to get looted even worse. Let's go." Joy smiled at Shade, who managed a shy smile in return before turning to his father and sister, who closed their eyes at the same instant. Shade's hands reached out, one wrapping around his mothers, the other around Joy's. Shadow could sense each of his kids tapping into the Chaos Force around them, Shade only barely dipping in, letting Shadow do most of the work due to his experience, while Bianca tried too hard to pull her own weight, and was channeling too much energy. Shadow sighed inwardly, and used the precise amount of energy as the epicenter of the three charging beings, before the three spoke as one.

"Chaos Control!" they shouted, and disappeared, leaving a blue glow that was swallowed by the dark building behind them.

Sonic hated to admit it, but he was tiring. Scourge had the stamina of a hedgehog almost ten years younger, and the physique too. Sonic liked to think that in the last ten years he had kept himself trim, but he was in his thirties and had lost a little bit of strength from lack of use. Scourge, on the other hand, had spent ten years in prison, and had every inch of a fighters build and strength, while the Master Emerald's radiation had done more than just change Scourge's color, but even increased his stamina to a heightened level and allowed him to keep his body in a shape rivaling Manic's, considering his son was coming close to his twentieth birthday. He blocked Scourge's left-footed kick, but wasn't fast enough to dodge the right foot coming right behind it, which hit him in the eye, leaving it darkening.

"Heh, so the great Sonic the hedgehog has fallen. That's rich. Now, tell me where the Chaos Emerald you brought with you is, and I'll leave…for now." Scourge grinned, showing a mouth full of glistening sharp incisors. Sonic tried to think of a witty retort, but his body was slowing down, signs of exhaustion. Scourge waited for a response, but when none came he started getting irate.

"TELL ME!" he roared, wrapping his hands around Sonic's shoulders and hoisting him up, then struck him with a right hook. Sonic stood, and suddenly realized what it felt like for Scourge after he powered down from his Super form in their last fight, when the Anarchy Beryl had left him completely drained. Scourge turned and looked at Sonic's plane, before kicking him again.

"Nice plane. Did the mutant brat make it for you? I bet it's got what I'm looking for!" Sonic's strength started to jump, as his fur darkened and his pupils disappeared, but Scourge noticed the change, sending Sonic flying with an energy blast from his left arm.

"Heh, that Master Emerald did more than just keep my bod at peak. Thanks for the emerald, by the way." Scourge plunged his arm into a hatch near the engine of the fighter and withdrew a glittering blue gemstone, the color of Sonic's fur. Scourge laughed as he faced Sonic.

"Better learn to Chaos Control without emeralds, coz you aren't going to be leaving here for a while." Scourge's spindash sliced the engine clean off the plane, leaving it useless as he Chaos Controlled away, leaving Sonic alone. Sonic reached into a new compartment on the plane, withdrawing a small microphone.

"This is Sonic. I failed. Requesting immediate pickup."

"Copy that, Sonic. A GUN helicopter is on its way to collect you." Commander Towers replied, before terminating the link. Sonic sighed and started looking for a good place to wait, away from the ocean around him.


	8. Shocking Reunion

**Chapter Seven: Shocking Reunion**

The brown hedgehog ran through the streets of Central City, a city now in flames. Behind her, a large swarm of Moebians ran, engorged on stolen goods but looking for blood. Clearly at the head was an agile bat, wearing a hooded jacket and jeans in order to try to cover up her attractive figure.

"She's mine, boys, and I doubt that any of you could stop me!" the Anti-Rouge cried, racing ahead of the pack to reach the hedgehog. Still running, the young hedgehog spun and screamed, her sonokinetically enhanced blast serving two purposes; stunning Anti-Rouge and calling for help. Suddenly, while running backwards, she ran into a red and black hedgehog.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" the newcomer yelled, looking nervously over her shoulder, as if being chased. A black and white hedgehog came out of a third alleyway, helping both of them up.

"Say sorry, Shima, and let's get moving. Otherwise, they'll catch us!" the black and white hedgie muttered.

"Sorry, miss." Shima grumbled, then turned with her friend…only to come face-to-face with the gang of Moebians. Cursing, she turned to the third passage only to find more Moebians flowing in.

"Looks like we're trapped!" the brown hedgehog squealed, before settling her nerves. Indeed, from the final passage came a group of GUN soldiers, all holding rifles up and at the ready. Suddenly, it appeared that the three young female hedgehogs were going to be stuck in deadly crossfire, when a figure forced his way through the group of GUN soldiers. His quills and shaping were almost identical to Shadow, and his face had an identical expression to Shadow's scowl. However, that was where the resemblance ended. His fur was green, with yellow lightning-bolts where Shadow's streaks were. On his wrists were two silver energy braces, both possessing a blue glow. His shoes were the same green as his fur, adorned with yellow trim, but both had a pair of golden thunderbolts flowing off the back. All three girls' eyes went wide, and Shima could barely disguise her shock when she managed to speak.

"Statyx…" she whispered, almost to herself. He froze, seeing the girls in this predicament, before motioning to the soldiers to lower their weapons.

"I'll deal with this, men."

"Rodger that, sir," the leading officer of the soldiers said, obviously slightly annoyed at not being allowed to capture his target. Statyx made a shooing motion, and reluctantly all the soldiers left. Quickly, the three girls ran out of his way as a single Moebian ape dived at them, only to find himself flying backwards from a single punch from the G.U.N Commando.

"I won't let you touch a single hair on their heads. Any of them," he warned, closing his eyes and forming a pair of electrical blades, one in each hand. Anti-Rouge froze, then turned tail and flew back, but another Moebian was no chicken.

"So, you want to fight, huh?" From within their ranks, a being walked. Nobody made a move to stop him, but nobody was game to. He stood at about the same height as Statyx, but the look of madness within his eyes paralyzed each of the Moebians. Indeed, within his eyes was the same look of insanity as Insane Shadow, but behind it was also great intelligence. His blood-red fur and blue streaks instantly made him identifiable, although the hair was styled differently, and he only wore pants instead of his normal clothes.

"BloodSonic. I've heard of you from my half-brother. You have amazing power and speed, and are unpredictable. Plus you're more than 4000 years old. Impressive, but why side with beings that would turn on you the moment you turn your back?"

"Whom else would I join? The pathetic Editors? The Guardian Units Of Nations? The Trolls? Eggman? I'm not Blood. You may call me…the Anti-Blood." Quicker than the eye could blink, Anti-Blood had Statyx on the ground, Chaos energy rippling around his hands. Statyx unleashed a Double Thunder Beam on the dark hedgehog, throwing him a short distance and giving Statyx enough time to get up and ready himself, trapping his opponent within a Thunder Shield orb and starting to form a Lightning Blade, ready to strike. Anti-Blood wasted no time in shattering the orb with a Chaos Blast, before charging at Statyx, who appeared to still be charging the Lightning Blade. He leapt, letting his body fall into a flow-state from years of combat training. Suddenly, he realized he hadn't struck anything and had passed where Statyx was. His eyes opened to see Statyx racing towards him, Lightning Blade fully prepared and ready, before ramming it between Anti-Blood's ribs, leaving a massive hole in his chest.

"I am Statyx the Hedgehog, the ultimate guardian. You attacked two members of the ultimate lifeform family and Echo, my girlfriend, at once, so you don't deserve mercy." Statyx said darkly, darkness evident in his eyes. Echo opened her mouth to speak, but screamed instead as Anti-Blood stood up, shadowy threads already repairing the damage that the Chaos Lightning Blade had done.

"Foolish Mobian. You think that being struck with an electrical technique is going to stop me? I helped train an electricity wielder. He uses a variant of that technique. You think I haven't felt its sting before?" Anti-Blood just stood, as if waiting. Statyx gritted his teeth, before reaching for his inhibitor braces, before stopping. There was something about this Moebian that made him rethink his strategy, then gave up, reforming both Blade Thunders and charging. Anti-Blood didn't even flinch as each of the two electrical swords struck his body, leaving charred fur behind.

"Oh, please. Even Silver can do more damage that that." Statyx growled, and lashed out again, forming a giant electrical fist and launching it directly at Anti-Blood, barely budging him a centimeter.

"Wow. That was the Fist of Zeus, I take it? That was so weak, even Sonic could do better. In his base form. That's how little a threat even your strongest moves are to me!"

"What about these?" came a new male voice from behind him, and Anti-Blood turned to see that all the other Moebians had been forced away, and that there was a cat with creamy-yellow fur and dirty blonde hair wearing olden-style clothing and pointing a large flintlock pistol at his head. The gun fired, and instead of a bullet, a ball of fire leapt from the end and struck Anti-Blood between the eyes. Anti-Blood recoiled sharply, before facing the cat angrily. This took his attention off Statyx, who struck his foe with a sudden Electric Wave into the ribs. Anti-Blood's eyes darkened within the black "whites" and he lashed out, Chaos Controlling behind the cat and throwing him into Statyx before unleashing a one-handed Chaos Blast Beam directly at the two, which was stopped by a solid stream of water being launched by a female fox, who stood directly between the two defeated heroes and Anti-Blood, who with her brown fur, black hair and smart olden-style clothes made her seem harmless, but the massive streams of water coming out of each hand obviously deferred that idea. Instantly, Anti-Blood cut-off the Chaos Blast Beam, opting instead to test her. However, the coalition of enemies he was facing had other ideas.

"Alright, everyone, we only have one shot with this! Hali, I trust you can get him in one place for a while?" Statyx asked, his brain working overtime.

"Um, sure. I can try to trap him in a Chaos Shield until you guys are ready," the black-and white hedgehog admitted, looking at her half-brother in worry. Statyx, however, wasn't paying attention.

"Alright, then this is how I want to play this. Everyone but Hali, use your strongest attacks on him. I need at least thirty seconds to charge my technique, so that's how long you have!"

"Right." The cat dove around Anti-Blood, drawing his attention with a mixture of Ignis, Fulgur and Globus Glyphs fired from his gun. As soon as Anti-Blood's back was turned, Hali's hands flew up and rippled in golden Chaos Energy.

"Chaos Shield!" she screamed, trapping Anti-Blood within a golden energy dome. As soon as he was obviously out of play, each of them prepared their attacks.

"Ready, Albus?" the fox yelled to the cat, a pair of Glyph marks appearing on her arms as she prepared a Glyph Union.

"You bet, Shanoa!" he shouted in reply, coating his leg in glyphic flames. Statyx had already begun charging light into himself, as Shima formed Chaos Energy into the familiar spear shape before broadening it, and Echo took a deep breath. Anti-Blood simply closed his eyes, snapping his fingers and freeing himself, but wasn't fast enough to be ready for what followed. Hali closed her eyes and turned away as most of the others lashed out as one, giving Statyx the final amount of time he needed. Anti-Blood found himself immersed in an ice storm triggered by Shanoa's Melio Grando Glyphic Union. Closely behind that was Albus and Shima, striking simultaneously with completely different techniques. Albus lashed out with a powerful, fiery kick, while Shima hurled a Chaos Missile directly into Anti-Blood. This was finished by Echo, who unleashed a massive sonokinetic scream, which dropped Albus and Shanoa to their knees and shattered all the unbroken glass in the area. Anti-Blood was trapped, by both the paralyzing ringing in his ears and the trapping ice around himself, facing down a glowing Statyx.

"This is the end of you, Anti-Blood! CHAOS…" Statyx roared, in a spindash position, before launching himself directly forwards at lightspeed straight for Anti-Blood.

"…SHATTER!" came Statyx's voice, a mere split-second before he triggered a Chaos Control, creating a stunning and brightly colored shockwave, which danced across Anti-Blood's dazed eyes as it struck him. Everyone else froze. Statyx had disappeared. For that matter, so had Anti-Blood. Suddenly, Statyx reappeared, restrained by a telekinetic aura. Silver floated down, setting Statyx onto the ground, all the energy of his attack drained. Close behind the white hedgehog was Blaze, fire in her eyes.

"I'm sorry for the rough landing, Statyx, but would you have preferred to end up in a far-off dimension?" Silver asked sarcastically, meeting Statyx's eyes openly. Statyx shook his head, too drained to even attempt a retort. Blaze smiled at the macho display, but then motioned for everyone to approach her.

"Listen. We need to find Sonic. Someone stole the Sol Emeralds from my world, and Silver ended up there after his Time Stone was stolen. We managed to get here, but now we need to find Sonic. Does anybody know where he is?" Statyx managed a faint smile as he straightened up, sweat clinging on his fur.

"Yeah, he's with GUN command in New Mobotropolis for now. We should all go there, and be ready to help out. It's a full-blooded invasion. Look, let's just get going now." Statyx closed his eyes to Chaos Control them, but Shima simply grabbed his shoulder.

"Allow me. Chaos Control!" she said, and the large group disappeared, leaving the city in flames.

Anti-Blood landed, face first, back in Moebius. He hadn't been quick enough to dodge the Chaos Shatter, but had managed to twist almost all of his body out of the way. Almost. He lifted himself on his left arm, before looking at what remained of his right shoulder. Black threads were repairing what they could, but they couldn't rebuild an entire arm. Not without time. He cursed. Statyx had just cost him six weeks, the amount of time in a specialized healing trance that it would take him to regrow his lost appendage. Anti-Blood limped over to an old cryogenics tube, something that had sustained him for months while organs and limbs regrew previously. Eventually, he'd seek his revenge, but now was time to sleep and wait until he reached his peak strength again. Only one thought was in his mind as he forced his intelligence back to enter the trance: He had lost.

* * *

><p><em>AN_: I'd like to thank celebitimetraveler36, Ryushusupercat and Green-Bolt on DeviantArt for the use of their characters in this chapter - all of them become recurring characters in this book, and all the ones after it as well. At least, that's the plan.


	9. Arrows, Magic, and Blades

Chapter Eight: Arrows, Magic and Blades

Julie-Su trekked across the snowy grounds near the banks of the Silver Lake, not far from Albion. In her satchel was a Super Emerald, glowing a glittery gold. She kept moving, even though her body was tiring and her own resistance to the cold was low. She felt her will and strength being leeched by the sub-zero temperatures, but ignored it as a Moebian panda dived at her, claws outstretched. Faster than the panda could blink, Julie had her double-barreled taser in hand, blasting it with a massive dose of electricity. It collapsed, twitching. This was followed by an Egg Pawn, it's laser coming close to striking Julie-Su. Stealthily, she ducked down into the snow, crawling around to the Egg Pawn's blind spot. While the Gun Pawn searched for her, she leapt upon it, her cybernetic dreadlock finding a port for her to hack. Within seconds, she was in. The pink echidna gasped. It had been reprogrammed greatly, with coding only Tails or Eggman had been seen producing. Obviously, this was the handiwork of Miles Prower, the Anti-Tails. Just as rapidly as before, she disconnected, but not before setting the core to detonate, barely leaping from the humanoid robot before it detonated. She landed face-first in snow at the foot of a tree, stunned. That was before a large gold pointed hammer face swung down and would have hit the cybernetic echidna if she hadn't leapt to one side, arming her taser and sliding a second weapon into her off-hand. The pointed hammer arced down again, but this time Julie-Su was ready. The massive tip of the hammer swung downward, ready to crush, but Julie maneuvered the small energy-coated dagger into its path, stopping the warhammer with the strength of an echidna. The impact created a loud PIKO upon impact, and Julie recognized the green sides and handle of this hammer from a red version wielded by one of her own friends. A lilting, cackling voice came from the other end of the hammer, revealing a being Julie had never expected to see working for Scourge.

"Mree-hee-hee! Scourgie said to smashie anybody with a powerful stone here, and I found one! Now Scourgie will have to give me respect!" came the voice of the pink hedgehog with pale skin and a green and yellow tutu, just before she swung her hammer at Julie again. This time, Julie's strength wavered, her arm buckling under the force of the hammer blow. The Anti-Amy took this time to brag.

"You're hard to squishie. Harder than a little hedgie, but I don't care! You still get squishied!" Julie tried a different tact, to try to make the insane hedgehog flinch long enough to get tasered.

"Wouldn't you rather squish Scourge, Rosy?" she asked, making sure she had a decent grip on the taser. Rosy spat, the squishy mound landing barely inches from Julie's face.

"Squishie Scourgie?" Rosy's face flickered, as if she was fighting something, but quickly returned to the same mad expression she normally wore. "Why squishie Scourgie? Scourgie is my friend! He let me squishie Mobians!" It was this distraction that allowed Julie to raise her taser to fire, but she didn't have to. An arrow leapt from the newcomer's bow as he leapt from a nearby tree, the twine on the arrowhead binding Rosy's hands to the hammer. A second arrow, this one with a shoe tied to it like a giant foot, headed directly for Rosy's head, but she managed to hit it with her arm as she struggled to chew through the hardened rope.

"Rob?" Julie-Su asked tentatively, looking at the figure of the King of Mercia.

"Aye, tis I, Rob O' The Hedge. Be ye the wife of the Guardian, Knuckles?"

"I am, your highness." Julie returned, using the tree to help herself up. She reached down to her satchel, only to find it gone.

"My satchel! It had a Chaos Emerald in it!" she cried. Rob reached into his quiver for something, but froze.

"Verity! Someone has taken the Royal Scepter from my quiver!"

"Royal Scepter?" Julie queried, confused. Rob gestured frantically, stressed.

"Aye, the Royal Scepter. Tis a powerful tool of the king, and also tipped with a Power Gem in the head!" the royal hedgehog finally said, stressed. The two turned to Rosy as one, only to find a gothic-looking rabbit cutting through the ropes binding Rosy with a dagger, before using the Super Emerald she had removed from Julie's satchel to Chaos Control away, with Rosy and the Scepter going with her. Both hedgehog and echidna stood there, blinking. Julie shivered at the cold, before Rob walked over and grabbed Julie's satchel, which stood out in the snow like a star in the night sky. He withdrew a Warp Ring, then handed her the satchel.

"Prithee, let us get somewhere warmer. Do thou know where?"

"I do." Julie took the Warp Ring from Rob, creating a portal to New Mobotropolis. "We go to my home, and plot our course with the military alliance fighting Scourge's forces." Julie-Su stepped through the golden portal before the green hedgehog could respond. Rob stood for a while, his brown robes merging with the brown trees around him, before he followed Julie through to the other side.

The purple cat hurried through the forest, worried. She'd heard that there were Moebians around, and that they were stealing precious items. She shivered, imagining what would happen if they managed to get their hands on the book of magik or the powerful staff she possessed, or her Pokemon, some of the strongest in Mobius. She rounded the corner in the dark forest, only to find a massive group of Moebians, lying in wait. Stunned, she grabbed a red and white Pokeball, throwing it.

"Come on out, Vulkan!" she cried, but the Pokeball never opened. Instead, it was coated in a red psychokinesis field. She froze. A deep-blue hedgehog was holding it shut with his telekinesis.

"I don't think so, girlie," he said, his voice steely and dark. "Now, hand over the book and staff!"

"What book? What staff?" she asked, nervously. Then, a second Moebian muscled through the pack. She looked a lot like the purple cat before her, but she wore a purple tank top and a red skirt instead of a black shirt, glasses and jeans, as well as having her blond hair curly instead of straight. She looked at the Mobian in disgust, before speaking.

"Ryushu, don't even bother trying to play stupid. You know what we're talking about." Ryu remained quiet, as her counterpart got closer to her, acid in her voice.

"Yes, nerd-face, you know what we're talking about. The Tome of the Ancients. The Staff of Celestia. I can use both. Come on, four-eyes, give it over!" the Moebian screeched, getting right up into Ryu's face. The Mobian muttered softly, her words in no language any Moebian recognized.

"Sorry, I didn't quite get that, nerd-face. Speak up!" the Moebian inquisitor roared. Ryu smiled, repeating the ancient words again, activating seven runes, which appeared, blasting her counterpart with flames.

"Looks like I'm not as weak as you thought, Mandy!" Ryushu laughed, the Staff of Celesta appearing in her hand. Mandy stood, burned and furious, before pointing at her counterpart and roaring.

"Get her!" she screamed. The Moebians behind her hesitated, before banding together and charging. Ryushu quickly used a Shield spell to protect herself, but it was obvious that it wouldn't last long against this horde. However, one eager Moebian suddenly found himself flying backward, with a green hedgehog kicking him away. Indeed, there were four Sonic recolors there, surrounding Ryu and holding off the Moebians. The green one seemed to be the leader, and the others happily followed him. A light-blue one quickly started freezing all the Moebians that came near him, while a yellow one electrocuted them while he kept a stupid look on his face. A purple recolor lashed out lethally with toxic sprays, while the leader, the green hedgehog, branded a rapier with skill.

"Brothers, let us protect her! There may be something in it for us!" he cried, giving Ryu a seductive wink, before turning to resume the battle. Then, the wolf appeared, in the middle of the Moebian mob. At first, he was pale and washed-out, almost ghost-like, but he quickly started to gain color, becoming a deep, chocolate brown with black, spiky hair on his head, with certain spikes streaked with red. He wore a black denim jacket and black jeans, and was covered in weapons. His belt sported a pair of silvery hilts for energy blades, while another two empty scabbards were on each side, one for each of the two katanas in his hands, with each sporting a unique black and red blade. A handgun was strapped to his left leg, and it was obvious that he had other weapons on him. His muzzle and skin was last to appear, taking on a natural tanned color, but the most astonishing thing was the two black dragons wings that formed on his back. He lashed out, sending the Moebians that were around him flying in all directions with a single slash, before seeming to drop out of reality. His hair got longer out the back, becoming almost quill-like, with some tipped in red, the others being fully black. His hands, feet and swords all started to catch fire, before he shut his eyes and attacked in all directions. Fire blasts came from his mouth, hands and feet at the Moebians who were sent flying, and those that got too close found themselves being struck by hands, feet and sword blades. There was a mass panic. The Moebians were facing a foe whom fought with a vigor they not only respected but feared. Those on the edges of the clump turned tail and bolted, running as fast as they could away from the berserker. Those whom were lucky enough to be struck in the lower body by the bursts of flame were soon running amongst them, while those unlucky ones who fought him soon were either unconscious or dead, unable to defend themselves against his skill. Also fleeing, although in a different direction, were the four recolors whom had been guarding Ryushu. Frightened almost to death, they ran, hoping to return to their fellow Trolls as soon as they could. Ryushu dropped the shield, and turned to view the wolf. As she did, his eyes opened, revealing hazel eyes with a strange, almost mystical, quality to them. His hair returned to its normal length, and he sheathed his two swords in a single, fluid movement. She found him rather attractive, but was unable to look at him as he turned to her.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Who are you?" she countered, quietly.

"Call me Flare," he replied, and she could tell he found her attractive in return. They were silent for a while, but both were satisfied. The wolf spent time teleporting the injured Moebians back to their home dimension, as Ryushu retrieved her stolen Pokeball. It was Flare who broke that silence.

"They'll be back after they convince themselves that I'm not some kind of demonic force out for their heads. There's a massive defense force out at New Mobotropolis, you heading out that way?" Ryushu shrugged, but looked nervous.

"It's a pretty long walk, and I don't want to sound like a beast or a creep, but I would prefer it if I got you there myself," the young wolf stated. Ryu smiled, reaching for a Pokeball.

"I can get there, no worries! Arktilises can fly me there!" she responded, but the canine fighter smiled.

"It might be so, but I think this might be quicker." Flare walked over, and knelt down in front of her. He motioned for her to climb onto his back, between his wings.

"I can go just as fast as any Pokemon, even if I'm carrying someone else. Hop on!" Ryushu considered everything for and against this silently, before breaking into a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let his strong legs and powerful wings launch them into the air, heading to New Mobotropolis.

* * *

><p>Once again, thanks to Ryushusupercat of DeviantArt for the use of her fursona, whom once again is a reoccuring character...although not at the moment.<p> 


	10. Temple of Fear, Tower of Power

**Chapter Nine: Temple of Fear, Tower of Power**

As Will watched, each of his squad mates set up their own unique resting places for their stay in the Gaia Temple. Stave unfurled a sleeping bag, with a selection of magic staffs besides him. Daniel threw down a pair of blankets on a cold stone plinth, with a large set of golden-hilted throwing knives ready at his fingertips. Belle inflated a blow-up mattress, her cosmetics and polish not too far from her arms length. Kyle set up a massive array of sensory equipment and archeological equipment, making Will doubt that he was going to sleep at all in this entire posting. Will turned to his own modest set of sleeping bag, swords, picture of Maddy and his family and such. He felt a presence over his shoulder, a form of sixth sense that told him someone was watching him. He stood to see Daniel studying him intently.

"Um, can I help you?" Will asked, slightly disgusted. The platinum-blonde hedgehog swung lightly to the ground from his plinth, his medium-length quills dancing in the pallid light.

"Oh, nothing. I don't swing that way, if that's what you think. My sister finds you attractive, and I was wondering why," he responded, keeping a lighthearted face in this rather dismal location. Will raised his eyebrow, unsure who Daniel's sister was. The hedgehog smiled, feeling the confused nature in the atmosphere.

"You remember my sister, don't you? Titania?" As soon as the name left his lips, Will instantly realized whom he was talking about: the blond-haired hedgehog from high school whom had what could only be called an obsession with him. He grunted, and Daniel laughed, noticing the change in mood.

"Tell you what, the rest of the combatants are sparring, and I wondered if you felt like showing us how a Guardian fights. What do you say, dude?"

"Count me in, although don't be surprised if Kyle shows us all a few tricks he knows. He's not exactly the passive kind." Daniel snorted, slapping Will lightly across the back.

"Come on, let's see some of these combat tricks."

Tails closed his eyes, feeling the presence of a few hundred different forms of power-creating item, from Chaos Emeralds and Fake Chaos Emeralds to a single World Ring to a variety of elemental crystals and otherworldly items stored in the crystal storage in the Monolith. He could also feel his wife beside him, holding his arm in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves. He opened his eyes again, seeing Cream and marveling at her newly discovered combat suit. As she had grown older, she had grown out of wearing dresses in high-intensity situations, and was wearing a gray tube top and ice-blue jeans. These, Tails noted, granted her more than just added flexibility, but also emphasized her physical fitness and attractiveness. He kissed her on the cheek, which made her jump, but she quickly turned to face him.

"You know that when they come, they're going to come hard, right?" Tails asked, having done so many times before. Cream laughed, with her chao Cheese sitting on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I do. Just as well as I knew it before you said it ten minutes ago. This is a major tactical thing for them, so they aren't going to sit down and roll over. We need to stand strong, like we have in the past. Together." Tails smiled, but didn't settle completely. One of the security alerts chimed, and the camera footage on the single monitor he could see showed him all he needed to know: his own counterpart had led an army into the tower, which was fine by him. Now to let the tower security to do its work.

Will stood in a basic combat stance, watching as Daniel flicked a trio of knives at him with a tiny movement. Rapidly, he knocked them out of the air with his extended knuckle blades. Daniel tried again, this time hurling the knives with Chaos-laced edges. Will ignited his arms and deflected the blades with them, before racing towards him with burning fists. Daniel tossed his final knife into the air, not aiming it at all. Will raced towards him, but Daniel rammed his hand into the hilt of the falling knife, launching it as a blur of steel and gold directly at Will, striking him in the leg. Will cringed, but didn't complain as his leg started to bleed. Silently, Stave walked up and wrapped Will's leg in bandages that glittered from within with translucent coppery magic. Soon after the injured echidna dragged himself off the area the three of them were using for training, the two hedgehogs faced each other. Stave held a staff, while Daniel revealed two pouches on his belt and in his shirt, each rippling to the brim with throwing knives and kunai. Silently, they started pacing, moving around each other. Daniel tested the water by throwing a kunai at his gray opponent, but Stave simply stepped to the side to make it miss, before swinging his staff in a vertical sweep, sending a blistering wave of coppery magic towards Daniel, who dived to the side, avoiding it. The two then charged, Stave changing his grip on the staff, Daniel drawing a large sailors knife, specially weighted to be thrown, and closing on each other in a bang. However, as they fought, Belle raced in, closely followed by Kyle.

"They're almost here. Stop fighting amongst yourselves, because soon there'll be a proper enemy to fight!" Kyle roared. Will and Daniel both found themselves smirking, as Stave dusted himself off from the small splinters that had broken off his staff in the duel. Quickly, the five of them set up, with Will moving furniture and discarded stonework to make a makeshift palisade in order to slow them down in their entry. Daniel looked around edgily, pulling up the hood of his hooded t-shirt up to a point where it hid his eyes in shadow, giving him a darker appearance. Kyle bent down, sliding his hand into what looked like a jar, before raising it and powering it up, revealing a rather effective energy cannon. Belle smiled at that, revealing her own repulsor cannon built into her cybernetic arm. Stave just grimaced, and Will couldn't help but notice.

"What's up, Stave? You used to love fights, although not all of the ones you were in." Stave looked at him, darkly.

"After you left, I felt my only chance to beat Leon go. I left by foot not too long after, until I found my way to a cleric, almost like magic. He taught me how to heal with magic, and redirect a variety of powers, as well as channel powers from my allies through myself into opposition, but the first thing I ended up doing was fighting for my life against people who accused us of treachery and misuse of powers. I swore then that I would complete my training, and become a master cleric, a Grand Cleria as they call it, and here I am." Stave's face was pale with the memory. Will motioned for him to calm, before going pale himself. Daniel, still hooded, was standing atop the palisade and was taunting the Moebians before him.

"Yo, is that mudbutt or did you follow through?"

"Heh, my mother can throw rocks harder than that!"

"Wow, you guys really need anger management classes, coz you're losing it!" Will clambered atop the palisade in a hurry, to see a large mob of Moebians, all yelling angrily. He looked at Daniel, whom was grinning maniacally.

"This is fun! I love it!" Will raised an eyebrow, but turned when the Moebians went silent, all turning to listen to the golden armored echidna standing up the back. Will felt his spine go cold. That echidna was the one from his dream!

"Attack, but do not kill them. I shall do that, personally," it ordered. The Moebians grinned, and turned to attack.

"Ready, guys?" Daniel asked, turning to see the guys behind him. Stave nodded silently, hands wrapped around his staff baseball bat style. Kyle and Belle both had blasters out and ready, preparing for a leap into the air. Daniel rotated to look at Will, who was cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

"ATTACK!" the two standing defenders yelled, with Daniel hurling two knives as golden blurs into the mob as Will leapt defiantly in, fists blazing. Kyle and Belle both popped up, unleashing torrents of energy blasts into the mob, and all through that was a massive platinum blond blur hurling throwing streams of knives and kunai from his position atop the palisade. Daniel laughed as each Moebian his knives struck was either pinned to the ground or stabbed, his normal intelligence gone into a state of bloodlust. Will spun, trying to use his heightened speed to charge through the gang, but the cuts on his leg were slowing him down. Instead, he coated every inch of his body in flames, before leaping into the air, seeming to hover. The Moebians he had been fighting stopped to look at him, before realizing what was going on. He dropped, the flames launching off his body like a shockwave. The Moebians further back realized that although they were outnumbered, these young adults were more powerful than they appeared. They fled. The echidna in his golden armor just stood there, watching his people get decimated. Just as quickly as the battle started, it finished. Moebians lay on the ground, in most cases unconscious. Will was puffing, tired from fighting. Daniel smiled, collecting some of the discarded weapons, before he noticed the echidna.

"Will, there's one left. Can I deal with him?"

"Go…ahead…" Will wheezed, catching his breath. Daniel's smile grew as he grabbed a kunai.

"Piece of cake!" he shouted, hurling the knife. The blade flew straight and true until it came almost to reaching the echidna, where it suddenly flew to the left, embedding itself into a wall. Daniel shrugged, throwing a pair of golden-hilted knives at the armored foe, but those two reached the same distance and suddenly slammed into each other, slamming into the ground. Hard. Now showing signs of annoyance, Daniel threw six more knives and kunai at once, but these also stuck to each other, and the ones on the floor as well.

"Never use metal tools against a master of electricity and magnetism, fool!" the Moebian echidna roared. Daniel smiled again, and a cocky edge emerged into his voice.

"Well, good thing I brought these then!" Out of a previously unseen pouch in the small of his back, Daniel grabbed something and hurled it directly at the echidna, who moved his hand again as he had before. However, the brown blur struck the armor directly between the eyes, bouncing off. Will noticed Daniel grabbing another set of wooden knives, throwing them as blurs. The echidna just stood there, as his armor got more and more dented, ignoring every single strike. Daniel started to get more and more annoyed, before flicking his sailors knife out of its scabbard and raced towards the echidna.

"Eat steel, freak!" he screamed. His opponent laughed, dropping down into a familiar stance where his palm filled with lightning and he raced towards the enraged hedgehog. Like jousting knights they approached each other, before striking. They both stood, appearingly embedded on each other's attack, before the armored Moebian stepped backwards, the knife sliding out from underneath his arm. Daniel staggered, then fell, the massive bleeding wound in his side suggesting he wouldn't last without medical assistance. Belle screamed, pouring blast after blast into the echidna's golden armor. It started to glow, before his hands formed a blast of purple energy.

"Rail Cannon!" he roared, unleashing a long purple blast into the path of her repulsor blasts, holding the light blue beam pulses back, before lancing straight through and striking the flying cyborg, throwing her painfully to the ground. Stave raced over, his hands rippling in magic as he prepared to stabilize Daniel, but the Moebian ran at Stave, sparks leaping off his armor as he used electricity to speed himself up, before bringing his arm down on the back of Stave's head, knocking him out instantly. Will growled, his hands catching fire rapidly. The Moebian shimmered as he channeled electricity through his armor as his fists were coated with sparks.

"You first, then the fox," he warned, before the two echidnas raced forward, both using sharp ripping knuckle blades to attempt to shred the other. Will rammed his fist into the echidna's nose, as it kicked him in the gut. Neither gave any sign of backing down before a bright silver blast knocked the echidna off. He turned to see Kyle holding his energy blaster and the Chaos Emerald. The Moebian cursed in a guttural language, which Will guessed to be Bes'kad, the language of the ancient Echidnas.

"I am Striker, the hand of Scourge. Remember it, for it is the last name either of you will learn!" Kyle laughed, his hands not wavering from the emerald.

"Well, if that's true…you're going to have to catch me!" Instantly, Kyle was off running as hard as he could, putting distance between himself and the older echidna. Soon afterwards, Striker started bolting after him, increasing his speed as he had before. Will prepared to run, but he first closed Daniel's eyes, giving him a dignified end. He turned and bolted after his best friend and the enemy trying to kill him, sadly leaving two unconscious people and a single body behind.


	11. End of the Line

**Chapter Ten: End of the Line**

Tails cracked his knuckles as the door blew inwards, blocked by a telekinetic catch he managed to pull off using Chaos Energy. Quickly, a bright green echidna burst in, holding his quarterstaff in a defensive position. Behind him came a uniformed fox with smoothed black hair between his ears. He clapped, his face holding a sarcastic smile.

"Hello, kid. I'm here for the Chaos Emeralds, and I doubt that you will stop me getting them." Miles' gaze carried across onto Cream. "Either of you." Cream stepped forward, aggressively, but Tails' hand blocked her. He sat there, eyes closed.

"You'll have to get through us to get them, Miles," he replied, serenely, with nobody seeming to notice his fur starting to stand on end and get lighter. The echidna laughed.

"You really think we'll bother? All we have to do is stun you, help ourselves to the emeralds, and then I think I'll help myself to your daughters. You know, as my payment for this duty." Cream growled, stepping forward again as her body started to change. Her chest started to expand outward and she started to grow taller. Miles and the echidna looked at each other in shock. Nobody had expected her to reveal a Super form. Cream laughed as her fur turned a light yellow, the same as Tails' Super form, before lashing out with a slap aimed at the echidna. He smiled; swinging the staff into it's way before kicking her legs out from beneath her.

"Please, even with a super form you are weak. I'll make this quick." His grip on the staff changed slightly, and the tips of it started to burn with red Anarchy flames.

"Anarchy Dart!" he yelled, launching a red Chaos Spear-like attack straight at Cream, but it only lightly impacted against her head, almost completely useless. Angrily, she started to stand only to find herself flying backward with a telekinetic tug from her husband. Tails growled as he opened his eyes, revealing bright red irises, as his fur rapidly became the pale yellow of his super form. His right hand opened into a claw-like shape, which was quickly filled with spinning energy. The color of the energy ball quickly changed to a pale orange, while it grew to be about half the size of Tails' chest. He held it at his side, before running straight forward and shoving the Super Rasengan directly into the echidna's chest, sending him flying straight out a window. Miles froze as the energy ball deformed, and Tails turned his focus onto him. Suddenly, both Tails and Cream screamed, grabbing their heads in pain. Miles blinked as his mob of Moebians fought their way in the door, having been attacking everything else in the tower, just as Tails and Cream opened their now pupil-less eyes and their fur started darkening. What could have caused this to happen?

Kyle ran as hard as he could, tails spinning behind him like a cyclone. Behind him, he could hear the solid thudding of Striker racing after him, using lightning to increase his speed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hear Will. Kyle tightened his grip on the white Chaos Emerald in his hand, easily tapping into it's power and locating Will a fair distance behind the two of them. Kyle snapped back to reality just as he was about to faceplant into a tree, resulting in him diving to the side and losing some momentum. He snuck a glance over his shoulder to see a blur of gold racing towards him down the path he had made, so he closed his eyes and raced off.

Will growled as he ran, unable to catch up with Kyle and Striker no matter what he tried. The cut on his leg hadn't healed yet, and whatever magic Stave had used on it was stopping him from accelerating enough to fly, or even accelerating enough to start catching up. He felt Kyle's senses brush against him, telling him that Kyle was a fair distance ahead and giving him a sense of urgency to catch up. Will roared, before diving head first into the ground, using his powerful arms to move the fastest way he could think of, just hoping that his tunneling would let him catch up.

Kyle kept running, forcing himself to exert everything he had to stay ahead as Striker gained on him. Closer and closer the golden blur was getting, Kyle could feel it. He was tiring. Unlike Will, he had never made the most of his Chaos-enhanced strength and skills and now it was costing him. He was exerting every bit of Chaos Energy he could, channeling it into his legs and tails to force himself faster and faster. Suddenly, his feet hit nothing. He dived backwards, stopping himself from falling off the cliff he had lead himself to. Quickly, he checked his chances. The cliff was wide, wider than he had flown over in a long time. He was exhausted as well, which ruined his chances of flying over. He tried to collect together enough Chaos Energy to Chaos Control, but his running had drained every last morsel of energy from his body, and the emerald wasn't glowing as bright as it should, suggesting that he had started to drain it as well. He quickly calculated his chances, before gripping the emerald as tight as he could, feeling it's power start to invigorate himself. He readied himself, thinking about his target location as well as he could.

"Chaos…" he started, but it was that moment that a large, golden gauntlet wrapped itself around his neck and held him over the edge.

"Almost got away from me, didn't you? Well, you didn't. Somehow, this seems almost fitting. A flying creature killed by death from a fall. Oh well." With one gauntleted hand, Striker grabbed one of the young fox's tails and snapped it. Kyle whimpered with the air he had left after being choked by Striker. Suddenly, there was a rumbling in the ground behind them, moving towards them with great speed. The Moebian grabbed the Chaos Emerald and swung Kyle towards the edge, before letting go of his neck, sending the fox flying off the cliff towards the valley below.

"Oops. Oh well…" Striker murmured, disappearing in a flash of blue light as Will emerged out of the cliff wall, diving after Kyle.

"I've got you!" he cried. Kyle gave a weak smile, before responding.

"Tell my family and Crystal…I love them," the fox whispered, falling faster than Will could dive. Within seconds, he hit the ground. His body shook, before it started to collapse under it's own weight. Will used the two seconds he had to pull up and land right next to his friend. Will grabbed Kyle's body, cradling it in his arms as he whispered to his friend, mostly to remove the shock from himself that he was going to lose his best friend.

"Goodbye and thank you, my friend…" Kyle murmured, before his body went completely limp. Will raised his head and screamed, all of his anger and sadness coming out in that single burst as he withdrew within himself. Right where the first gate lay, a natural, porous barrier started to shake with the flow of energy, before opening in a torrent of Chaos Energy, which burst out through Will's eyes. His pupils completely disappeared, closely followed by his irises becoming blood red. A pinwheel spun into each eye, filling the place where his pupils had been. Will felt his fur prickle and stand on end, as if he was transforming in his desire for revenge, but clamped down on it and blocked the energy, allowing his eyes to power down as he broke down and started to cry.

Knuckles froze as the Master Emerald started to take on a black glow. Stunned, he placed his hands upon it and focused, letting it show him what had happened, only to see Will's eyes transform and Kyle on the ground, unmoving.

"He awakened them…this isn't good." Knuckles stood completely still, unsure about what to do. His son had awakened the Sharingan Eyes. A secret technique amongst the Knuckles Clan, the Sharingan Eyes were awakened through negative emotions such as sadness or anger in quantities that would consume most people. With training, a Guardian or Knuckles Clan member would learn to control the eyes, but few reached the point when the Sharingan Eye would itself transform into a more unique design, with additional powers within itself. That happened when someone they loved died, either a family member they were close to, like Knuckles and his father, or their best friend, like Will. This could mean trouble, but the fact that Will had powered down the eyes was saying something about his strength. Suddenly, Knuckles realized that if he had felt Kyle's death, then Tails and Cream had to have.

Miles closed his eyes and managed to ascend to his Super form just before the first blow was thrown. Tails came in close, and his counterpart realized just how much trouble they were in. Both Tails and Cream had suddenly started to ascend to high-level Dark forms and cause a massive amount of destruction. Tails had entered a form with tonnes of black hair, spiked up and out all over the place like a Troll, his Dark Mega form. Cream, on the other hand, had become pure gray, and lacked pupils – her Dark form. The two of them had obliterated his entire strike force, leaving him on his own. Tails spun to face him, his body emitting a strange gray glow that constantly expanded. Miles was sure this was going to be his end, so he cowered down in the corner and tried to hide from the two Dark transformations. Whimpering, he waited for Tails to throw the final blow, but found it never hit. Instead, Striker and Scourge floated there, Scourge in his own Mega form, Striker, as normal, in his armor. The two of them had intercepted the first blow, and now were holding up a wall of crimson energy between themselves and two raging Dark forms.

"What happened?" Miles asked, positioning himself to assist in the shield. Scourge gave him a dirty look, before opening his mouth to respond only to have Striker beat him to it.

"Their eldest son died. A casualty of battle, I'm afraid. I think they felt that, and they've transformed because of it."

"And who's to blame for that mistake?" Miles asked, annoyed.

"I am." Striker said, which triggered both Dark forms combining their power in a Chaos Blast Beam at Striker, hitting him in the gut and pinning him onto the wall. Scourge and Miles both acted on instinct at that point, with Scourge blasting Tails with a Chaos Bomb and throwing him up against the wall where he could deform, unconscious, while Miles quickly struck directly behind Cream's ear with a punch, making the most of her distraction to knock her out with the single strike. Both Moebians powered down and got to work packing a trio of backpacks with the multitude of powerful items, before turning to see Striker standing up, his visor folded up to allow himself to see, revealing the face of Anti-Will.

"Ready for the final battle?" he asked Scourge and Miles. Each of the elder Moebians looked at each other, before grinning.

"The battle for New Mobotropolis and the Master Emerald shall begin." Miles said, while Scourge's smirk grew.

"Finally, I get my revenge," he crowed, before starting an evil laugh that would make Eggman envious.


	12. Sorrow and Thought

**Part Three**

** Chapter Eleven: Sorrow and Thought**

Will tried to disappear into the background as he walked into the plaza set aside for the fighters, but as soon as he entered, people started screaming and yelling to each other as they saw what was cradled in his arms. As he walked, people parted before him to leave a path to the hospital, the bundle in his arms sliding a bit. As he entered the hospital building, a scream went up as Maddy spied him carrying the mortal remains of Kyle Prower, one of their oldest friends. She started to run towards him, but let him lay Kyle on a bed and cover his body in a sheet before wrapping her arms around him. To her astonishment, it was only a few seconds before her shirt started to feel damp underneath his head and muffled sobs were heard, and passers-by slowed to see the sight of a weeping echidna and his girlfriend. There were still tears in his eyes as a hand rested itself on his shoulders gingerly. Will straightened to as tall as he could, knowing precisely who it was from their touch. He turned and looked away from his best friend's parents.

"Look at me, Will." Tails commanded. Will did, turning to see the elder Prower with parts of his body bandaged and bits of fur missing, with Cream behind him, head bandaged tightly. Just as quickly as he turned to look at them, Will looked away.

"I…I failed you. I could have saved him, but I…I wasn't…I wasn't fast or strong enough. I…" he managed to say, before a new wave of grief hit him and he staggered, catching himself on the edge of the bed in an attempt to stop himself hitting the ground. His leg ached were Daniel's knife had cut it, Stave's magic having faded away to nothing but a faint whisper, and Will's own Chaos-enhanced healing wasn't working, which Will took to be his body's way of expressing grief by letting him wallow in pain. As he thought of the smiling platinum blonde hedgehog with the massive supply of throwing weapons, the grief renewed itself and he had to be guided into a chair by both Maddy and Cream. Tails bent, seeing not only the cuts on Will's leg but the psychological trauma from seeing two people under his command, two of his friends, killed in action and another two beaten to a pulp. This was eating away at Will more than any physical pain could. Tails knelt so he was looking Will in the eye, and spoke with a soothing tone.

"Will, it's not your fault. If anyone's to blame, it's the Moebian who did the deed. You did your best to save them, and we know that. We don't blame you." Will raised his eyes, so Tails could see how much pain and sadness was there, and Tails wasn't disappointed. Will's eyes were bloodshot and full of emptiness, the same thing Tails had felt when he believed Sonic was dead. Even so, he hadn't seen Sonic 'die'. He hadn't seen it at all. Will had seen two of his friends die first hand, and that had to be traumatic.

"He was going to be a father," the echidna murmured. Tails looked to Maddy and Cream for any ideas on whom he meant, but both faces were blank.

"Who was, Will?" Now the echidna's eyes took on a sad light, and Tails found himself dreading the next few words to come from the young man's mouth.

"Kyle was. He has a girlfriend up in the mountains near the Forest of Light. He would often Chaos Control there, saying he was going to help repair the town." Indeed, Tails remembered Kyle doing just that, disappearing for days at a time to help out, not a common thing for a sixteen-year-old. This was a shock, though. Kyle had never mentioned a girlfriend, never mentioned that he was going to make both Tails and Cream grandparents. Now, he would never get the chance. A group of cats, lead by a black female wearing a jacket and tracksuit pants with a golden katana slung on her back, walked over. The lead girl bowed, and Tails recognized her from the last battle for Mobotropolis, one of the cats who accompanied Maddy and Kyle while Will was sick. He scanned his memory, and plucked her name out of a few hundred.

"My condolences, sir," she said formally. Tails gave a sad smile.

"That's alright, Kit." She jumped, surprised that he would use her name, but gave a faint smile in return. She nodded to the other members of her party, including a familiar orange cat with long curved claws, and they turned to allow the cat within the middle of the group to come through. Maddy's eyes widened. This cat wasn't wearing makeup, and she wore maternity clothes, not the tight-fitting shirt and skirt she normally did. Her blonde hair and orange fur had a glow to them, and at that moment Maddy could feel her dislike for the girl leave her body.

"Crystal? Is that you?" she asked. The cat nodded, before turning to Tails and Cream.

"My name is Crystal. I am…was…Kyle's girlfriend, and soon-to-be mother of his child. I had always hoped to be introduced to you, his beloved parents, but…" her voice trailed off, and both Prowers looked at each other in surprise. Crystal stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Cream and Tails, and the two realized just how close she had been to Kyle. Cream led Crystal to a chair, and the two started talking. Tails looked at Will, but saw a rapidly approaching red echidna and decided to leave him be. Instead, he looked at Kit and her team, and smiled as much as he could.

"I'll take you to the tactical planning room, so we can brief you on all we know about the Moebians, and get you set up for the oncoming battle." Kit nodded sagely, and followed the two-tailed fox away, her team following her. Will looked up, his body still hollow and depressed, only to find a red hairy wall in front of him. Knuckles hauled his son to his feet, and nodded to Maddy as he led his son away. She smiled sadly in return and left.

"Dad…" Will started, not sure what to say. Knuckles responded with a pat on the back for his son, stopping in a quiet part of the grounds around the hospital.

"I understand. I sensed the entire thing with the Master Emerald." Will nodded, before he remembered a major detail.

"After he died, something changed in my eyes! I could see energy and time all at once!" Will turned to his father, who sighed.

"Thought this would happen. What you awakened was Sharingan Eyes. They are an ability passed down through the Knuckles Clan, unlocked through grief and extreme emotion." Knuckles watched Will's face for any questioning, but Will just nodded, his face still empty. Knuckles shrugged, then continued. "There are three stages of the eye. What you unlocked is the one easiest to unlock, the standard Sharingan. This is unlocked through intense rage, sadness or any other negative emotion, but can be accessed at any time afterwards. It sees energy, and can see thirty seconds forward in time if wished. It also copies techniques, either as they are used or through the future sight." Knuckles closed his eyes, then opened them again to reveal a pair of red eyes, the pupils split into three-point pinwheels. "The next phase is the Mangekyo Sharingan, unlocked through the loss of someone close to you. These, I unlocked when my father died, after I was Enerjak." Again, Knuckles closed his eyes, opening them to show the change. The pinwheels had connected, and now branched further out in a shuriken-style shape, still with only three points. "This version has enhanced abilities, in that it can see up to an hour ahead in time, and can use it's own attacks, like Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and Kamui. I feel that you awakened both first and second phase eye when Kyle died. There's a third kind when two Mangekyo eyes are combined, called an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, but I don't have access to it." Again, Knuckles stopped, awaiting a response, but Will remained silent for a little while. His father sighed, then continued walking towards the Master Emerald's current shrine. Will finally found some of his old self and spoke.

"So, you think I've unlocked the first two forms of eye?" It wasn't much, but Knuckles was relieved as they rounded the corner to see home, the house Will had grown up in and the Master Emerald's current shrine. Knuckles shrugged. Once this whole saga was over, he'd move the Emerald back to Angel Island and take apart the Fake Chaos Emerald array currently holding it afloat.

"That's just it. Now, we've got time. How about I teach you how to use these eyes before the battle starts?" Will smiled, a faint little crease in his muzzle, but he nodded and Knuckles' smile broadened.

"Let's get started."

Scourge stood proud in the current base camp. Around him were all seven Mobian Chaos Emeralds. He could feel their power, but he suppressed the urge to transform straight away. Instead, he watched Striker. For once, the young echidna had his helmet off as he cleaned the eye covers. This, in itself, was unusual. Most of the time, the two separate eye-covers would stay clean, even when the rest of the armor was dirty. The fact that there was dirt on the lenses was something Scourge felt like asking about, but he knew the reason why Striker was cleaning the lenses. Training and maintaining his armor was his way of coping with stress, and the blue echidna had more than enough stress in his life after fighting his counterpart. Scourge knew why that was an issue for the teen. Striker had believed that all Moebians were superior, and so when he had been perfectly even with his counterpart, someone so perfectly matched to his own skills that it was perfectly even, with neither fighter going all out, that his mind had to be rolling like a stormy sea. Scourge turned away and froze when he saw Miles standing directly in front of him.

"Don't do that!" Scourge shouted, backpedaling a step. Miles frowned apologetically, before speaking.

"Sir, I understand the plan, but what if the AI manages to get a Nanite field up between us and the city? That force field has stopped entire armies before, and we have no electrokinetic soldiers to spare." Scourge gestured to the large supply of power items they had amassed.

"You know how to use a Chaos Control Field, do so. Sparkle, Navy and any of the other Chaos-wielders amongst us could assist."

"Ah, I see. Thank you, sir. How soon until we attack?" Miles asked, bowing as far as he could.

"We attack when they least expect it. They shall know fear, and it shall be us to provide it!"


	13. Moebian Assault

**Chapter Twelve: Moebian Assault**

Will straightened, shaking his head. Using his new Sharingan Eyes gave him a headache, which his father said was just adapting to the new form of sight and processing more of it. Sitting outside his house, he could reflect on what happened in at the Gaia Temple. The more he thought, the less possibilities for the identity of the echidna passed through his mind until there was only three left. The first, the possibility of it being Anti-Vicious, he passed off. It had used electrical attacks, not Cykresian energy. Besides, there was nowhere for his quills, just dreadlocks. The second option, it being his father's Anti, was unlikely. Knuckles had no real aptitude for electricity, Fire being his element, and even then he used Chaos powers more often. The final one…Will shuddered. The final option was him. His own counterpart. However, the more he thought about it, the less likely it was. Even though he used electricity a lot, the chances of it being his Anti compared to the chances of it being the counterpart of an echidna he'd never met made that chance unlikely. Still…he shivered. He had a very bad feeling about this. Suddenly, there was a blue flash and two figures appeared. One was a green hedgehog with scars all over his chest, the same width as a slash from a set of knuckle blades, wearing a black jacket with flames on it and sunglasses, and carrying a bag. The other was a golden-armored echidna, the same one who killed Kyle. Will's hand went to where he kept his swords, only to find nothing. He swore, before spinning and activating the house's shielding with a touch of Chaos Energy. He could hear his father shouting like crazy, but he ignored it and instead focused on the energy reserves now located in his eyes, ignoring the stinging as his pupils reshaped themselves, then began opening the first two gates. He smiled. Now to let Scourge and his echidna soldier see what a true Guardian could do!

Maddy stood in the front lines within the city, watching the large army of Moebians start to approach. She looked to her left, to see the Mercian princess, her second cousin, holding a rapier in a traditional one-handed grip. To her right, Kit leant on a lamppost, conserving her energy, her golden katana sitting in a sheath on her back. Maddy summoned her Piko Piko Hammer, readying herself, before pulling a radio from her pocket.

"Team Three, reporting in. We have sighted the enemy." Tails' voice came back, grim.

"Copy that, Team Three. We are bringing up the shields now. Deal with any that break through in the meantime." Maddy pressed the reply button twice in quick succession, sending two clicks, the conformation signal, before nodding to the other two girls. None of them moved, as the shield rippled into existence between them and the Moebians. However, the army didn't stop. Instead, there were four or five blue flashes at once, and the entire army disappeared. Maddy reached into her Chaos Energy senses, and found the entire army instantly…within the shield. She waved the other girls in the direction the army had gone, and all three of them started racing towards there. As they rounded the corner to the main battlefield, where three to eleven person teams harried the Moebian force, a blindingly bright burst of light was released from the center of the battlefield. Maddy and Joy looked away, covering their eyes, while Kit almost collapsed from the sight. As soon as the light cleared, Maddy and Joy were moving, Kit a short distance behind. Almost instantly, a group of Moebians wearing armor charged at them. The leader was a hedgehog with a very familiar look to her, and Maddy almost gave up there and then as her sister's Anti led the soldiers into the fray. Joy's jaw tightened when she saw the emblem on the suits, the emblem of the Mercian Army, but inverted in color. Instantly, she slid in front of Maddy and just barely blocked a spindash from the hedgehog with her rapier, then gasped as Anti-Sonia's foot lanced out into her gut.

"Call me Sonya, _sister_!" she taunted at Maddy, lashing out with another flying kick only to be intersected by a large echidna with a massive sword. Jon growled, before smacking Sonya with the flat of his blade, sending her flying. Shade raced over and picked Joy up, nodding to Jon as he carried her to the hospital. Jon barely reacted, instead lowering his head and emitting a brutal roar. The blood drained from the face of each of the Moebian soldiers, who fled in panic. Kit looked at Maddy and Jon, who shrugged, then charged headfirst into the mob. Maddy kept moving, but soon found she had lost Kit and Jon in the battlefield. Spying a nearby fountain, she manipulated a stream of water out and lashed it forward into Navy, the Anti-Silver. At the same time as her water whip struck him, an Electro Whip wrapped around his neck. Statyx, who had launched the whip, twisted the electrical connection and spun, throwing Navy a long distance. Maddy tried to catch Statyx, but he was already moving to deal with the next Moebian, disappearing into the scrum. Instead, Maddy took to manipulating the water in the fountain, but in an instant, she realized the odds of this battle going in the favor of the Moebians. It wasn't looking good.

Scourge could feel the Master Emerald reach out to him; its power refreshing to his tired and strained body. He closed his eyes, using all seven Mobian Chaos Emeralds to allow his body to ascend to his Super form. This way, unlike tapping directly into the Chaos Force to enter his Super form and forms beyond it, his form was running at maximum power, red-hot and ready to fight the guardian. However, as soon as he entered sight range, there was a blue echidna in a black denim jacket just standing there, waiting. Scourge growled menacingly, and turned to see Striker beside him.

"Do you want to fight him, sir?" he asked. Scourge considered it for a second.

"You can do it. I'll get the Emerald." No sooner than he had the sentence out of his mouth that Striker was halfway to the echidna, barreling straight at him. However, as soon as he reached striking range, Striker froze, as if struck with a blast of ice. Scourge raised an eyebrow. Striker's counterpart didn't have any control over ice that he knew of, and he hadn't seen a single attack be launched. Confused, Scourge raced towards the echidna. However, when he reached the same distance from the teenaged echidna, he raised his head and Scourge's world changed. The echidna was in the same place, but the world was black with glowing white lines, no color bar a fire directly in front of Scourge. The echidna simply nodded, and Scourge screamed, his body falling into fire on it's own accord. Will smiled in the real world. Trapping both Scourge and Striker within illusions was easy enough now that he knew what he was doing. Now, for the challenging part: keeping one within the illusion and fighting the other. Will turned, so his left Sharingan was facing Striker, and closed it. Instantly, the illusion was broken, and Striker fell to the ground, the pain rapidly disappearing. Will frowned. He hadn't expected him to break past the pain so fast. Striker's hands were moving, and Will could see what was coming, like choreographed moves in a movie. Striker launched himself into a breakdance windmill kick, his foot spinning in an attempt to sweep Will's feet from under him, followed with an aerial bicycle kick to get back onto his feet. Only a split second before Striker launched the kick, Will was diving to the side, using his Chaos powers to extend the short-distance glide out as far as he could. Once on the ground, he spun as far as he could and launched an inverse Chaos Flash at Striker, which struck, but failed to completely paralyze him, instead sending his entire body into a spasm, throwing him to the ground. However, just as quickly as it hit, he dispelled it in a technique that sent a glow through his armor to his feet, then charged at Will, using the same inverse Chaos Flash as Will had. Will, due to the time-sight provided by his Sharingans, unleashed a Chaos Freeze, which enveloped Striker's attack. Obviously annoyed, Striker touched his right temple with an index finger, before Will felt his sense of reality start to shift, an illusion being cast. Without conscious thought, his Sharingans dispelled the attack. At the same time, he Chaos Controlled behind Striker and sent him flying with a single punch. Striker cursed, before jabbing Scourge in the back, freeing the super-formed hedgehog from the illusion.

"He's awakened Sharingans," the echidna said simply. Scourge instantly smirked.

"Want me to handle it?"

"Thank you, but no. I've never had the chance to fight someone with Sharingans, and it shall be interesting. Just pull back. You won't be able to break the Chaos shielding, and our fight will be intense." Scourge nodded, then flew off.

"Um, what? You can't HOPE to fight me. I've been beating the crap out of you for the last few minutes!" Will snorted, readying himself. However, the echidna reached for chinstraps under his helmet, pulling it off to reveal the face of his enemy. Will gasped, astonished. The face was near identical to his own, but for the black eyepatch over his left eye. He removed the eyepatch, revealing a blue eye with a pupil split through the middle like a blade. The other eye was the inverse of Will's own, although the fur and scars were the same. Striker focused, and his eyes changed in turn, the right becoming a Sharingan, the left turning purple with the Sharingan pinwheel pupil becoming broken with the purple color. Will's body went cold, and his rage built like an inferno, opening the third gate unconsciously. However, unlike becoming Blazing, where warmth would come over his body, or Super, where his fur stood on end from energy, the form he accessed projected darkness through his body, which instantly began to show. His Sharingans deformed, followed by his eyes – the pupils and irises both faded out to nothingness, and became pure white. His blue fur turned the exact same color as his streaks, a deep black, which spread over his muzzle, leaving him completely black. He roared, and Striker realized just what he was facing – Dark Will had been awoken.


	14. Final Round

**Chapter Thirteen: Final Round**

In the command center, Tails was running between strategic arrays like mad, trying to coordinate the entire battle essentially on his own, with Ronan giving some aid and Sally supposedly on her way. Sweat dripped from the fox's face as he dashed around, watching the main scanners on the battle, tuning out everything but the radio and screens.

"Tails, you need to drop the shields." NICOLE, the AI in charge of the nanite-based city, materialized beside Tails, and immediately took on the role of battle coordinator, letting Tails focus more on the alternate screens and relaying information to the teams.

"Tails, you there? You need to drop the shields, now." Tails spun to the doorway, and saw Sally Acorn stagger in, tired after her trip. The squirrel took a few moments to catch her breath, before snatched the radio off Tails and shouting down it her commands.

"Tails, why'd you invite that…thing?" Drop the shields, NOW!" Sally froze, her body locking in place at the sound of her hated rival's voice.

"YOU!" she roared, pointing at one of the screens at the black and green fox on the screen. He gave a dark smirk, something Tails could imagine him giving an enemy he had boxed in, before finishing them.

"Sally Acorn. Now my day is complete. Drop the shields, now." Ronan stated, shaking his long black fur and running a hand through his green hair. Tails immediately turned to do that, but Sally knocked him down in her attempt to stop Ronan getting his way.

"Is this one of your Col'nesian plots to take over Mobius and kill innocent people?" she screamed at him. Ronan grimaced, his ears drooping down slightly.

"What Col'nesian plots? No, this is something closer to home, check your external monitor." Sally immediately did so, and found a large squadron of Eggman units, lead by Eggman himself. In her shock, her hand strayed away from the manual shield control, and NICOLE dropped the shields, giving Eggman the opportunity to get his revenge.

Shadow, Sonic and Amy stood there in a triangle formation, keeping Moebians away. Sonic, for once, wasn't moving, but instead using lightning-fast strikes at anyone that got to close. Shadow was doing the same, but added in Chaos techniques to keep the area in front of him clear. Amy was swinging her Piko Piko Hammer haphazardly, knocking Moebians to the ground or sending them flying with a single smack with the large mallet. Then, the green tinge to the sky caused by the shields disappeared.

"That isn't good!" Sonic grunted, before a large missile smashed into the ground in front of him, sending a Moebian flying. The blue hedgehog turned to see an astonishing sight – a fleet of Egg Pawns, Egg Gunners and a few larger vehicles piloted by EggRobos and Snively, but pride of place was the Egg Emperor, with Eggman himself in control.

"Eggman? What are you doing here?" Sonic asked, confused, as Eggman swatted away another Moebian with the large spear his mech carried.

"Getting my revenge for them stealing my Casino Park base! ATTACK!" the overweight human shouted, and the entire robotic army responded, attacking Moebians and ignoring Mobians, and just all-around causing damage to the Moebians. In one of the few free moments he had, Miles radioed back to Casino Park.

"Open package two, if you'd please. We need the support." As soon as he finished the transmission, he was back into the fray, dueling Silver the Hedgehog in a battle of telekinesis.

Back in Casino Park, a gothic-looking cream rabbit stood near an array of cannons and a group of other Moebians. She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the order, before responding.

"Butters acknowledges, watch the skies." She turned to the mob of Moebians clumped around, before pointing at one, a red Sonic recolor.

"Ready, Pyris?" she asked, the look on her face suggesting a lack of care for whether he was or not.

"Yeah, I am…do I get to choose the cannon?" he asked, turning off his e-Pod and turning up the charm as much as he could. Butters rolled her eyes as far back into her head as she could, before nodding. Pyris ran for the cannon with the expanded red World Ring wrapped around it, diving in a spinball in preparation. Butter lit the fuse with the small lighter she kept on her person, before ducking behind the cannon. Even before it fired, Pyris had coated his body in flames, and as he passed through the red World Ring's power, the flames had tripled in size and burned with an amazing intensity. The cannon thundered and spat the flaming hedgehog out on a parabolic arc, straight at the city.

"Right, who's next?" Butters asked, her face the utter epitome of perverse delight.

"Yo, Egghead," Sonic shouted over the din of battle, even though he stood on the shoulder of the Egg Emperor, "Incoming!" Eggman turned the mech to see a fireball racing directly towards them. In a strange move, he dropped the spear and swung the right hand behind the shield. Sonic, unable to see, nearly jumped out of his skin when a thunderous noise, like an explosion, went off directly in front of him on the shield, in which a massive dint appeared. Eggman cursed.

"Artillery. They've started shooting their own people at us through cannons, probably with some kind of elemental filter over them. That was probably a targeting shot." Sonic looked confused, as Shadow leapt up onto the other shoulder to join them.

"What, so someone has to go deal with the artillery?" he asked darkly. Eggman opened his mouth to answer, but another voice was first off the mark.

"I can deal with the aerial shots. Eggman, drop the shield." The fat human stared at the spiky-haired wolf in surprise.

"I'm not dropping the shield! That'd leave me with only my missiles to fight with, you impertinent brat!" The wolf tapped his foot impatiently, before the discarded lance rose up on it's own accord and settled into the Egg Emperor's fist.

"What is this? Telekinesis?" Eggman demanded, confusion evident over his rotund features.

"Now will you drop the shield?" the wolf pressed. Muttering a stream of curses under his breath, Eggman had his mechanoid battlesuit drop the shield, before swatting a group of Moebians on the ground with a spear jab. The wolf, which hadn't stopped fighting with a pair of katanas through the exchange, stomped on the dint in the shield, popping it back into shape. A pair of massive black wings formed on it's back as it sheathed the swords, then took the shield in both hands and started to fly. As it did, Sonic saw a red and yellow blur materialize in the air through a warp-ring portal and fly straight for the shield, only to get smacked aside by a Nanite Cannon's chaff burst. A second blur, this one a deep purple, did the same thing, only to get smashed into the ground by the wolf, who had shifted the massive shield to a one-handed grip and was using it as a giant bludgeon. Even so, with the enemy reinforcements now easily destroying the smaller Eggman robots and giving the larger ones a lot of grief, the battle wasn't looking good.

Sally and Tails were both locked in a heated argument over Ronan's involvement when the Col'nesian tactician once again spoke.

"How clear is the area to the north of the conflict zone?" he asked. Sally opened her mouth with a venomous retort, but NICOLE cut her off.

"It's reasonably active with conflict, Ronan." The black and green fox pursed his lips, before smirking and pulling a cigar out of an off-screen drawer.

"Have someone throw a colored smoke grenade slightly further north of that conflict, and then forget about it."

"Why should we?" Sally shouted, but Tails was already ordering it in.

"TRAITOR!" Sally roared, diving at Tails, but the fox managed to turn and blast her with a ball of Chaos Energy, throwing her to the ground.

"Keep out of the tactical rooms, _princess_. Your issues with Ronan are getting in the way of proper tactical planning and battlefield control." Tails growled.

"Yes, go back to your lady friends and husband, leave the _hard_ work to those with aptitude for it." Ronan added, lighting his cigar and smirking even further. As NICOLE lifted Sally and started carrying her out, she turned to Ronan's image on the screen and spat at him.

"If this battle fails, then I am holding you responsible! You shall never set foot on Mobius again, and I shall see to it that you don't get any more contracts with anyone from Mobius ever again!" she screamed. Tails and Ronan both took the same expression as they looked at each other – right eyebrow raised, lips pursed and a hint of confusion on their faces. Tails shrugged it off first, calling in the order again.

"Ok, someone throw a colored smoke grenade into the area north of the battlefield, and there shall be support from the air." Maddy grabbed her radio and responded.

"Maddy here, I'm on it!" Lightly, she stood, grabbing the only smoke grenade she had been provided, and ran through the battle with speeds more reminiscent of her father, dodging around as many Moebians as she could. She could see the edges of the battle ahead of her, so she stuck on a burst of speed to reach there, only to have her way blocked by a slim, flexible red fox.

"You…Fiona!" she growled, using her momentum to pull the pin and hurl the smoke grenade just over Fiona's head. Fiona instinctively ducked, before flicking her whip out to full length. Maddy reacted on instinct, launching a Chaos Freeze followed by a series of Frost Spears. Fiona easily dodged the attack, and brought her whip around in a stinging blow on Maddy's cheek. Maddy backflipped then launched herself forward with Chaos-enhanced speed, ramming her head into Fiona's gut, before smashing her to the ground with a single punch between the eyes. Fiona started to lash the whip out again at Maddy, but a sudden thud and resulting shockwave threw her off balance. She spun to see what had done that, and her jaw dropped, while Maddy's eyes went wide. A gray orbital drop pod had smashed into the ground, with three thick-furred wolves holding rifles swarming down. More drop pods fell down, until there were fifteen soldiers of various species there. One of them shot Fiona with a strange blue ray, and she collapsed. A single soldier stopped to check on her as the rest set to work demolishing the Moebian attack force. Maddy started to turned back to the battle, but a final drop pod hit the ground. She turned to look at it. It was smaller than the rest, and only a single occupant exited it, but it was disturbing to look at. It limped from the pod, scarred and marked with cybernetic parts. It had black and white fur where it wasn't extremely scarred, and Maddy realized it had once been a raccoon.

"I…live…to…serve…Col'nesia..! I…live…to…serve…Terraclos..!" it droned. Maddy pulled away, slightly sickened, and turned back to the battlefield, only to find the battle over. Most of the Moebians had disappeared, which she attributed to Chaos Control. For the Mobians, the strange soldiers were administering battlefield medicine on those who they could, and GUN airships started to land in the area, disengorging medical teams and extraction teams to aid. She walked over to Statyx, who was surprisingly unscathed considering the ferocity of the battle.

"What happened?" she asked. Statyx shook his head, frustrated.

"Not a clue. They just Chaos Controlled away, probably back to Moebius. I don't like what that implies, but there's been a tactical meeting called at the Monolith's briefing room." Statyx turned and started to walk away, while Maddy took a final look around, before walking after him, the medical teams and a few other combatants following.

Striker shifted his stance to a more traditional combat stance, opening his body to the information pouring through his Sharingan and Sharinshotogan Eyes, letting himself see a few seconds ahead in time, to predict what his opponent would do. However, they kept showing the same thing in a constant loop, an unusual sign, like time was trapped in a spiral. He focused, as if breaking an illusion, and realized what was happening. _That form he's entered, it's subconsciously emitting a Chaos field capable of rewinding time a few seconds when faced with a time-based ability_._ Fascinating_, he thought. Instead of powering his eyes down, he powered them up further, to their second stage. The three-point pinwheels disappeared, replaced with a dual circle design, the outer circle possessing three smaller circles within it, the inner circle filled with black. Again, his left eye had the black lines broken, the mark of a Shotogan Eye. It was at that moment of distraction that Dark Will struck, launching a Chaos Blast Beam in a sudden burst, followed by a Chaos Control to put it behind Striker, before finally unleashing a stream of physical strikes that could have broken through steel. Striker let the Chaos assault strike him, before spinning on the balls of his feet and unleashed the power of his Mangekyo Sharinshotogan straight into Dark Will's chest. The repulsive and slicing power of the Shotogan struck Dark Will, forcing him back a few meters, but even enhanced by his Mangekyo Sharingans, failed to even leave a bruise on his counterpart's skin. Growling, the Moebian reached for a sheath hidden by his armor on his back, withdrawing a short sword make of the same metal as his armor, which he held in an experienced one-handed grip, before unleashing a massive spray of Ice from his body, a perfect Sheer Cold attack that he'd copied from someone. Dark Will just stood still, and the ice simply passed over his body, instantly disappearing as it touched him, before he sprinted straight at Striker, dropping into a slide aimed to knock his feet out from underneath his rival. Instantly, Striker cartwheeled to avoid the attack, only for Dark Will to launch a stream of red Chaos Darts racing towards him, as if fired from a machine gun. Striker took the first five strikes on his sword and armor, but then started using both the Shotogan's slicing vision and Kamui from his Mangekyo Sharingan to remove the threat from the rest of the darts, starting by stopping their forward motion so they became just a field of red energy, then removing the energy from play with Kamui. Each party stared the other down, although Striker was already starting to feel tired – using his Sharinshotogan so much was a massive drain on his strength, and the Sheer Cold hadn't helped matters by draining more energy than normal due to its Ice affinity. Dark Will, on the other hand, still looked as intimidating and dangerous as before, the Chaos powers that made it so powerful still evident in the purple-black flames that formed the energy-cloak most forms supported. Dark Will growled, a sinister sound not suited for any Mobian, before racing at Striker with more speed than ever. Striker only just managed to dive to the side, before launching a series of Chaos Spears straight into Dark Will, only for each one to disintegrate upon contact. He followed up with a Lightning Attack, unleashing a spray of large sparks from his hands into Dark Will's body, which arced for a few seconds, before the eyes narrowed. He slid forward and grabbed Striker by the neck, and within ten seconds struck over a hundred times, his anger magnifying each strike in the Raging Demon to something of astonishing intensity. Striker was in agony, and his eyes powered themselves down as he fell into unconsciousness.

Dark Will felt no satisfaction that his enemy had collapsed, only anger and pain. There was no place in the one-track mind for anything else but defeating the threats to him and those he cared about. Suddenly, a purple and blue flash struck him in the chest and threw him back a few meters, this one cutting through the energy cloak like it was made of butter. Super Scourge floated between him and Striker, before bending and grabbing the unconscious echidna, Chaos Controlling the duo away. Suddenly with nothing to focus his anger on, Will powered down. Knuckles burst from their house, having finally been able to deactivate the Chaos Shield around the house, and grabbed Will just as he started to collapse.

"Will…" the elder echidna started, but there was no need, Will's energy needs had struck him back and knocked him out, one of the side effects of his Dark form. Knuckles stooped over and lifted his son, carrying him away from the emerald and over to the Monolith. He knew Will would wake soon, and the planning session needed all of them awake.


	15. Council of War

**Chapter Fourteen: Council of War**

Knuckles looked around the amphitheater, the middle of what appeared to be the strangest war council he'd ever been part of. Will lay across three seats up the back, still unconscious. Maddy sat beside him, her hand upon his shoulder, a look of worry on her peach muzzle. Sonic and Shadow were pacing incessantly, not stopping once as they passed each other, while Silver and Blaze relaxed nearby, watching. Statyx and Echo sat together in front of Rouge, Omega and the rest of the GUN officers, hand in hand. The Mercian royal family was clumped together with Amy, Sonia and Manic, holding a small family reunion. Eggman had almost three seats to himself, which he happily expanded over. The other Freedom Fighters and members of the Chaotix were spread around the entire room, with Ronan's visage watching every member carefully from a screen on the wall behind Tails at the podium, bandages reapplied on his body after his stint as tactical advisory reopened the wounds Scourge and Miles had created. The strange wolf was sitting towards the front of the room, his eyes watching keenly, while the purple cat he'd arrived with spoke with Albus and Shanoa. Shima and Hali were as far from the group of GUN members as possible, nervously talking to each other. Finally, Blood and the Editors were lounging around, not seeming to take this meeting seriously.

"You know why you all are here." Tails started.

"Yeah, because the toilets are backed up. Some of us still need to pee, you know." Blood quipped dryly. Most of the others glared at him, to which he shrugged, a smirk on his face.

"You are all here, because a recent invasion of Moebians caused countless damage and ended with the theft of countless items of power from about three or four worlds," the injured fox continued, ignoring Blood. "The main reason that you are here, though, is to plan the next step against Scourge, who is likely to attempt to use all of these items to transform simultaneously, to create a form of immense power."

"Simple! Send Vic at him, in his Cykoric form! They didn't take any of the Cykoric Emeralds, so that'd work!" Blood grinned sarcastically.

"You're an idiot. I don't know how your Anti got so powerful." Statyx sighed, annoyed. With the look of surprise on the ancient hedgehog's face shutting him up, Tails continued, nodding his thanks to the Ultimate Guardian.

"Any ideas? Sonic? Shadow? You two seem deep in thought." Sonic pursed his lips, while Shadow just scowled.

"Well, you could just release the two of us into Moebius, then we'll go to our highest forms, fuse, and kick his ass from here back to the No Zone." Shadow nodded in agreement to Sonic's proposal, but Statyx, Blood, Knuckles and the wolf were all rising in protest.

"There's no way you could equal the power of a being with all those items of power on your own, fused or not! It would take a full squad of fully-realized Guardians to do that." Knuckles countered.

"Besides, he has all of the army we saw, plus who knows how many more reinforcements as well. There's no way to tell how many people you'd have to fight through, and besides, your fusion might run out on the way, and then we'd all be sunk," the wolf said, not looking as stressed as he sounded.

"We'd need a team to go. Sonic and Shadow are pretty much confirmed already, considering their power, skill and experience in Moebius. Who else? Lets see…Knuckles, Statyx, Vic, Comet, Joineth, Amy, Rouge, Shade, Jon, Shima, me, we're all possibilities to go as well. The team shouldn't be too big, but not too small as well." Blood proposed, to the raising of many eyebrows. "What, just because I'm random doesn't mean I can't also be smart!"

"Blood's right, we need a team. I volunteer." Statyx raised his hand. A few others looked around, and Echo grabbed onto him, a look of shock and worry on her face. Blood scratched his head.

"Hey, Statyx, how did you beat Anti-me anyway? He's insane, but he knows how to get into your head. Uses things that you fear or your attachment against you, distract you to the point where he can finish you with ease. That, and he's more powerful than you think." Echo and Statyx blushed, and Shima immediately picked the point Blood was making.

"Yeah, you said Echo was your girlfriend…but that doesn't make sense, because…"

"I guess there's no point hiding it here, amongst friends." Statyx sighed. "Echo and I are married. Have a son too, but that's not here or there." Ronan made an impatient gesture.

"Look, this isn't getting us anywhere! Make your minds up who's going, and then we'll work from there. Sonic, Shadow, Statyx, who else?"

"Make that four 'S's in the team, Ronan. I'm going." Silver stood, joining the others.

"That'd be five. Count me in." Shima waved, to a chorus of looks shared between the others.

"Blood?" Ronan prompted, but Blood waved it off.

"What, you want ME to go? Sorry, my Anti's already in pieces, so there's no need for me there. I nominate Vic, Knight, Sora or SSX to go." Following that, three hedgehogs and an echidna all punched Blood. "Oww…quit it!"

"I…I failed…" a voice rung out from the back of the room, just as Knuckles opened his mouth to volunteer. Everyone turned to see Will sit up, a pained expression on his face as he did so.

"Huh? You stopped them from taking the Master Emerald! How is that failure?" Sonic challenged. Will's face remained pained as he responded.

"I failed to beat Striker. I failed to get revenge for Kyle. I failed to save my best friend from my counterpart. That's how I failed." Sonic simply scratched his head, confusion evident. Blood and the others just shared looks.

"Will, I don't think you're all together in the head. Just saying, you don't seem right. Your dad had more place on this mission than you. He's got more strength to him, and his Chaos form should give Scourge something to think about." Shadow prattled. Suddenly, the black hedgehog was thrown away by an invisible fist, getting slammed into the wall by a single invisible punch as the powerful young echidna launched himself from his seat and landed in front of the massed team.

"I think you misunderstood. I'm going on that mission. I'm the only one who can beat Striker. I know where I went wrong, and I can fix it!" Two more people, Cookies Prower and Manic, stood and walked over to join the rest of the team, making it a team of seven fully trained fighters.

"Will, look, you're angry, and I understand, but you're not in any state to do this attack run!" Knuckles reasoned, offering his hand to his furious son.

"Listen to your old man. You obviously can't beat me anyway, too much emotion to think clearly. How about I take away something…" Will's face contorted into a dark mask of itself as he spun to face Striker, now unarmored, standing on the seats he'd just abandoned, Maddy in his arms with two sharpened knuckleblades hovering mere centimeters from her temples. Her pale face was almost as white as the gloves held steady close to her head. Will growled, a low, beastial sound, before lashing out a kick, throwing an invisible kick of energy at Striker, only for the Moebian to Chaos Control away, taking Maddy with him. Will collapsed in rage, and within seconds, Blood and Knuckles were there.

"Will? You ok, dude?" Blood asked, with Knuckles giving the traditional parental look of concern. Suddenly, both of them went flying as Will, or rather, the air around him, exploded with energy as he opened all eight gates in rapid succession, the red flaming cloak forming as it did last time. However, as it formed, Will's pupils disappeared, followed by his irises. His fur became more waxy and rough, turning the same color as his streaks. Sonic leapt at him with a Spin Jump, only to be tackled in midair by the enraged echidna. Tails brought his namesakes down on Will, but the flames solidified underneath them, shielding the teen as he dashed out of the room, directly through the wall, towards the Master Emerald.

"Wow, a dark form with a flaming cloak. Don't see that every day." Blood groaned, as Sonic got back up.

"Moebius Infiltration Team, go after him, calm him down, and take him with you." Tails requested. Most of them eyed him like he was crazy, before turning to Knuckles, who gave a resigned sigh.

"He's more likely to go anyway now that his girl's been kidnapped. I'll give my place up for him." Shadow nodded; fitting a radio mouthpiece to his muzzle, before leading the team out in pursuit of Will and his Overdriven Dark form.


	16. Pursuit

**Chapter Fifteen: Pursuit**

Sonic and Shadow stuck together, each being seen only as a blur by the people around them. However, they were two blurs in a set of seven, with four other speeding hedgehogs and a single rabbit all moving at their top speeds, trying to catch Will. Shadow scowled, before shouting.

"Enough of this! CHAOS CONTROL!" Instantly, Shadow disappeared in a flash of blue light. Barely two seconds later, Statyx and Shima did the same, and Silver wasn't far behind them, not teleporting but dashing, using his telekinesis to fly at astonishing speeds. Sonic slowed slightly, enough to grab Manic and Cookies' hands, before using Chaos Control himself, and the final members of the Moebius Infiltration Team disappeared.

As soon as they reached the others, Sonic was gobsmacked with what was going on. Shadow had his inhibitor rings off and was grappling with Dark Will, but it was obvious that even the Ultimate Lifeform couldn't hold the echidna back for long.

"Don't just stand there, faker! Help me!" Sonic didn't know whether to be offended or surprised because of Shadow's use of his old nickname, but the others all leapt into action. Almost instantly, the Overcharge cloak was suppressed by a turquoise glow as Silver grunted, barely able to hold the telekinetic restraints on Will's dark form. The restraining field was then added to by Shima, who's cyan telekinesis aura shone as brightly as Silver's turquoise power. Shadow used this as his chance to free himself, nodding to Statyx. At that, Statyx raced at Shadow, who used a burst of Chaos Energy to launch his brother into the air, before charging and slamming Will with a hip and shoulder tackle, pushing himself into the air with pure strength. As he reached Statyx, they grabbed hands and entered spin dashes simultaneously, spinning in sequence as well as on their own. This technique slammed into Will, and a cloud of dust obscured Sonic's view. He saw Shadow and Statyx turn to walk back to the others, only to have two long, flaming tendrils extend from the thickest part of the dust, dragging them both in, at the same moment as Silver and Shima were sent flying. Sonic roared, charging in and repeatedly smashing the dark-formed echidna with every physical technique he could think of, only to have the flaming cloak repulse every strike. Manic tried bringing his sword in, but even the sharpened blade of Excalibur couldn't cut through Will's defense. Sonic closed his eyes, appearingly in frustration.

"I didn't want to have to use this until we reached Moebius, but oh well…" he muttered, his quills flickering with increasing speed. Silver watched in amazement as Sonic's quills locked into place and his fur stood on end, turning his normal hedgehog blue color to a bright gold. Manic and Shima looked astonished as Sonic began to float, a ripple of energy rolling off him as his super form completed itself. Sonic reopened his eyes, and a pair of startling red eyes glowed in place of his green ones. Will froze, and a cruel grin split across his pitch-black muzzle. Shadow and Statyx used this moment wisely, both backing away to let Sonic have free reign. Cracking his knuckles and grinning like a maniac, Sonic bolted towards Will, leaving a sonic boom behind him as he smashed his fist straight into Will's face. Easily, the punch broke through Will's energy cloak, but barely made him flinch. Angrily, Sonic tried pausing time with Chaos Control, letting his environment invert in colour. Even so, Will remained black, and his smile widened.

"My turn," he growled, his voice low, guttural and oozing with darkness. Sonic shifted his stance from an enraged offensive to a more controlled defense stance, one of the few martial arts skills he, Knuckles and Shadow had exchanged over the years. In doing so, he noticed Will shift his weight from his right foot to his left, before hurling a Chaos Spear with insane intensity straight at Sonic, who only barely managed to block the strike with crossed arms. Even before he could compensate, Sonic found Will barreling towards him, both fists completely covered in darkness as he launched into a frenzy, releasing that final shred of control he had held and becoming fully bestial. Sonic closed his eyes, preparing for a battering, but it never came. Opening his eyes, he found that the Chaos Control had worn off, and Will was frozen in place, staring directly into his father's eyes, which were red, each pupil a three-pointed pinwheel. As Sonic watched, the pinwheels seemed to spin, and Will's dark form receded, leaving the teen on the ground, shuddering and sobbing. Knuckles powered down his eyes, and placed a hand on each of Will's shoulders, before wrapping his son into a massive hug, each shedding tears. Sonic returned to his base form, returning to the rest of the team. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"What happened? I sensed you Chaos Controlling, and the next thing I knew, Knuckles was here," he asked. Sonic shrugged.

"We fought in the time-stop, he was winning, but it collapsed just before he hit me. Don't ask me how Knuckles got here, or what he did. All I know is, it worked."

"I think it's touching." Shima muttered, and Cookies nodded. Manic made a gagging noise.

"I think it's sick." Sonic, Silver and Shadow all laughed, as both Knuckles and Will got up and walked over to the others.

"Right, follow us. We're going to take you to the Master Emerald; you can get to Moebius through its power." Shadow nodded, motioning for the others to follow him. The others all started to follow, albeit with rolling eyes and sarcastic gestures from Sonic and the two youngsters, the others all used to the idea of taking orders from Shadow. Knuckles and Will spoke in soft, guarded voices as they walked through the areas damaged by Will and Striker's last duel, before arriving at the current home of the Master Emerald, Knuckles' Mobotropolis home.

"As soon as I can, I'm moving it back to Angel Island. The Super Emeralds are powerful, sure, but I think it's fallen a fair few meters since we moved it here, almost eighteen years ago." Shadow nodded sagely, while Sonic just smirked.

"Didn't you move out here for your family to have more access to things?" Knuckles shrugged.

"Hey, I'm not needed here anymore. Lara's at university, and Will's almost at the age to move out anyway, so Julie and I were discussing moving back to Angel Island, and I think that after all of this drama, we should. Take the Master Emerald with us, so it's better protected, out of the way so people aren't being hurt by armies after it's power, and so if anyone does try to steal it, I can fight them, not Will. I haven't had a decent punch-up in ages." All of the elder members of the team laughed, while Will, Manic and Cookies all looked at each other and shrugged. Knuckles lead them through the well-maintained house into the Emerald Shrine-room. Shima and Statyx looked at each other in surprise, not expecting to see a recreation of the Emerald Shrine of Angel Island sitting in Knuckles' house, complete with wood and stone murals on one of the walls and a few strange statues. Knuckles smiled, before clambering atop the massive glowing gemstone and closing his eyes. As he did, the Chaos Energy they could all feel emanating from the Emerald magnified itself, and green flames surrounded the Guardian. Knuckles smiled as he sat cross-legged atop the gem, the energy invigorating him. Without even opening his eyes, he pointed at each person there, and the energy manifested itself in it's own unique way. Sonic's quills stood out on end, almost as if he was transforming, before returning to normal. Shadow's hands and feet burned with the same green flames as he spread his arms and laughed. Silver's psychokinesis shone bright green, slowly changing back to normal. Statyx's inhibitor bands started to glow with intense patterns as they instantly charged. Shima found her dark form's wings suddenly burst from her back, without actually transforming, something she looked shocked about. Manic formed a shield of Chaos Energy in one hand, and drew Excalibur from its sheath by his side, holding it aloft in a traditional knight's pose. Cookies leapt into the air, flying for a few seconds like her mother, before slamming down into the ground and triggering a small earthquake. Then, Knuckles pointed at Will. Everyone watched, but there was no visible effect as Will had a torrent of Chaos Energy offered to him. Knuckles scratched his head for a few seconds, but Will smiled.

"Looks like I'm already fully-charged and ready for battle, dad! Just give me one second." With that, he raced out of the Shrine and down to his bedroom. Looking around, he quickly spied and grabbed the weapons he was looking for, before racing back, strapping the belt to himself as he did. Knuckles started to grin as Will entered, the Twin Dragon Dao Blades strapped to his side.

"Practiced enough with those?" Will responded by drawing the blades in one hand, splitting them with a barely visible movement and throwing the second blade between hands.

"I think I'll manage," the young echidna smirked, before standing back and entering the circle that the others had formed. He grasped Cookies and Shadow's hands, and waited.

"Right, just be careful. You might be filled to the brim, but Scourge has more than enough items of power to give you a headache. Work as a team, and you'll bring him down." Knuckles warned, before closing his eyes, nodding towards Shadow once. The Ultimate Lifeform took the cue.

"Chaos Control!" he shouted, tapping into the combined energy of all in the circle, and warping the entire group off to Moebius. Knuckles sighed and slid down from his perch, passively accepting the final shreds of Chaos Energy the emerald was extending, before turning to see Blood.

"I'm going after them. You know, a little surprise reinforcement." Knuckles nodded, before motioning to the Emerald.

"Well, good luck, Blood. I'm going to see if there's anything left I can do here to help out, even if it's just rounding up Moebians." Blood nodded, placing his hand on the Master Emerald.

"Chaos Control!" he muttered, before disappearing in a flash of blue light. Knuckles gave a faint smile, before turning his back and walking out the door, leaving the emerald and it's power for another day.


	17. Moebian Life

**Part Four**

**Chapter Sixteen: Moebian Life**

The blue glow surrounding the team faded, only to find themselves in the ruins of a city. The gray bloodstained walls drew a gasp from Cookies, with Manic and Will both looking at each other in shock at the devastation around them. The elders with them looked unfazed as Sonic walked forward, cursing.

"This is what happens when someone like Scourge gains immense power," he murmured. Shadow nodded, looking around.

"Still, it's a decent place to start. Some of these stains are fresh, and by fresh, I mean it was inflicted in the last day or two. Castle Acorn might be a while from here, but Scourge or one of his lackeys wasted no time in decimating this city." Suddenly, there was a metallic clang. Shadow's hand was surrounded by a purple black orb of Chaos Energy as a metallic black handgun materialized in his hand. He flicked it up, with a rasping click from the safety being switched off as he spun in a one-eighty, to come face to face with a brown and white hedgefox of a similar height. He had white ears, and a white marking over his right eye, as well as fingerless brown gloves that reached his elbows, a pair of light brown pants, and similarly coloured shoes. Immediately, he raised his hands in a _don't shoot me! _kind of gesture. Shadow's hand tightened on the automatic pistol.

"Who the hell are you?" Shadow asked. The Moebian met Shadow's gaze.

"I am Don. My boss would like to see you now." With that, the hedgefox simply turned and started to walk off. The Infiltration Team looked at each other in surprise.

"It's a trap." Shadow stated. Statyx nodded.

"Has to be. There's no chance that we'd arrive here only to find Moebians interested in talking to us." Silver tapped his fingers against his leg, considering the information.

"I disagree. We know that there are people against Scourge, so there's a chance that we've ended up right in their area. You said it yourself; some of those bloodstains are fresh. That means that there must be an opposing faction in the area. If you argue against that idea, that means you doubt your own skills as a soldier, because any good soldier could identify roughly how long ago those bloodstains were left." Manic stepped up next to his father and nodded his support for that argument.

"How do we know that those bloodstains aren't all that's left of the resistance?" Shadow started to argue.

"Hey, guys, are you going to fight out here, or are you coming?" Will shouted, before following Shima, Cookies and that strange hedgefox into the ruins of a house. Sonic and Manic followed, while Statyx shook his head and reluctantly headed in. Shadow chewed his lip in frustration. How could they just go into what was most likely a trap? Silver just looked at the Ultimate Lifeform with amusement.

"Let's go, Shadow." Silver's telekinetic marks glowed, and Shadow found himself floating behind Silver, unable to move.

"I would have walked in," the GUN officer grunted, but Silver simply looked over his shoulder, still telekinetically carrying the powerful hedgehog.

"I doubt it." Shadow had to admit, that was true. As he entered the doorway, Silver simply walked through, but Shadow's head thudded against the top of the doorway.

"Ow! Damnit, Silver, watch where you're going!" Shadow roared.

"I am!" Silver responded, disappearing down a set of stairs. Shadow activated his Chaos Boost, easily shattering the cyan telekinetic field with his red energy cloak, landing gently at the top of the stairs. Powering down his energy coating, he slowly walked down the stairs, a light becoming visible at the end of the tunnel. Tightening his grip on the handgun, he walked down into the light, to find a most remarkable scene. There was two Moebians, the older one slightly younger than Will, the younger one closer to Kyle's age, sitting on the opposite end of a large dining table, were the others had sat down. The guy was a white hedgehog, and had a black bandana tied around his head, a desert-camouflage short-sleeved jacket unzipped from the neck down and a light brown sleeveless shirt with dark brown sleeves. The girl, on the other hand, was black with white streaks in her Amy-like hair, and she wore a pink shirt that barely covered her chest with a barely-visible emblem on the right-hand side and a set of red pauldron on her shoulders. Each stood up and approached Shadow, allowing him to notice the way they walked and their stance, as well as see that the guy was wearing gold-tinted desert camouflage pants, and the girl was wearing red jeans. The guy extended his hands and offered it to Shadow.

"My name's Gary. I'm the leader of this cell of the Moebian Liberation Army." Shadow shook the youngster's hand, squeezing it to test the hedgehog's nerve. If Gary actually felt pain, he didn't react visibly, instead returning an equal amount of pressure to Shadow's hand, enough for Shadow to determine something.

"You two are Power Hedgehogs, aren't you?" Gary's smile broadened.

"Yup. We're both Power Hedgehogs. Ignore Donatello. We're the only three left at the moment." Sonic cocked his head from further down the table.

"Huh? At the moment? Were the others killed?" Alice shook her head as Gary spoke.

"Nope. Look, let's eat first, then I'll explain. Don, the roast?" Shadow's eyes were drawn to a magnificent roast, with gravy, roast potatoes and a variety of other foods. Don picked up a carving knife and expertly cut the steak, serving the guests first, then the hosts. Amazingly, there was still a quarter of the roast left once they finished.

"Don't tell me the three of you were going to eat all of that on your own!" Manic exclaimed. This time, Don responded.

"Alice sees flashpoints of the future. She saw you coming, and we prepared food to feast on when you arrived." Will nodded, noting that Statyx was quiet and eating little, focusing more on Gary, as he had since Shadow revealed that their hosts were Power Hedgehogs. The host in particular was eating happily.

"Well done, Alice, another successful roast!" She smiled at him shyly, blushing. Quickly, everyone had eaten dinner. Garry offered a desert, but Shadow cut in first.

"Actually, we need the intelligence. You said that your allies weren't killed by Scourge, and gave no explanation. Well, if you are a resistance leader, we need guidance." Gary blinked, before speaking.

"Well, I'll start with what happened with the disappearances. Two full cells of Moebian Liberation Army members were stationed here, due to rumors of a possible Scourge return. The next thing we know, Striker, Scourge's adopted son, suddenly arrives with the Suppression Squad and a few other known Scourge aligned groups, and calls us out. Surprised, we went out, only to realize we were tricked. The armies managed to disable most of our forces, and Striker did something. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like he hypnotized them. Alice, Don and myself were the lucky three not to be hypnotized." Sonic sat forward, intrigued.

"Why weren't you hypnotized?" he asked bluntly. Gary again spoke.

"Donatello possesses an ocular ability, the Shotogan Eye. His family is a bounty-hunting dynasty; don't be surprised at his gruff nature. Alice is a hypnotist herself, and as such has taught herself how not to be hypnotized, even by a Sharingan. As for me…" Gary blushed, unsure what to say, "I'm a Soul Reaper. We make up the police force of the Power Hedgehogs. Alice is an Inquisitor, a member of the Spy ranks. I'm trained not to be able to be hypnotized."

"So, you and Alice are…?" Manic asked. Gary's face darkened.

"Alice and I are dating? Is that what you were going to say?" he blustered. "We are not our counterparts. I act like this because I'm sworn to both of our fathers to protect her." Will cut in, stopping the tirade.

"Look, Gary, I don't know your counterpart, or anything like that, so what you're saying is complete garbage."

"I was going to ask if you were related, not dating." Manic whined. Will nodded, then continued.

"Anyway, I don't find any use in what you're talking about, but you know what to do to beat Striker's hypnosis, and you know how to free your allies, don't you?" Will sat forward, his lips parting to reveal sharp canine teeth. "So, if you will, get explaining. Striker's my fight." The Power Hedgehog was silent, considering his options and fuming at the same time. The others leaned in, waiting for the Moebian's answer. Gary took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly to restore his frayed nerves. He repeated the gesture, then raised his eyes to meet those of the fiery young echidna.

"To break his hypnosis, you have to break his state of mind, his delusion so-to-speak. He believes that his father was killed by Anti-Knuckles, and that Scourge adopted him. The latter is true, the former is false. Anti-Knuckles was his father. Scourge killed him." Sonic's blood froze as he processed that information.

"Scourge…killed him?" Will's face was a dark, contorted mask of its normal expression.

"Anything special I need to do for him to see that?" Gary's shake of the head was all the conformation on that area he needed.

"Nope, just make him see that you will win, and he'll know he's beat. Striker's smart. He'll be able to realize when you've bested him. Good luck to you." Will grinned, but his eyes carried over a darker tone.

"Good luck to _him._ He's going to need it." Gary nodded his understanding, before quickly writing a note out on a paper and handing it to Sonic.

"This is the area Scourge was last seen in. Get there in one piece, and you'll be able to face him." Suddenly, there was a strange noise from the area above the basement area they were in. Alice spoke, the first time any of the Mobians had heard her speak.

"Enemies, Gary. Our former allies are here." Gary scowled, before motioning to the Mobian team.

"Go. Get out of here. The three of us will buy you time." Shadow opened his mouth to object, but Gary seemed to glow with red energy.

"Anarchy energy!" Shadow gasped, astonished. Gary motioned to a second, hidden exit behind him.

"Get out. Like I said, the three of us will deal with them." Shocked into action, the Moebian team quickly raced up the stairs, before a mass Chaos Control was triggered and each vanished. Barely a second after that, Gary, Don and Alice stormed up the front set of stairs, coming face to face with their old teammates, lead by Sparkle and Rogue.

"Well, looks like Scourge thinks we're a threat, guys. Guess we're going to have to properly buy time. Get ready…" he started, and the three prepared for a battle of their lives.


	18. Impossible Challenge!

**Chapter Seventeen: Impossible Challenge!**

Sonic lead the group through a dark, clumped forest, in towards Castle Acorn.

"We know that Scourge based himself here before, and aside for the increase in support, he's following the same sort of pattern as last time, so my money's on him being here again." Shadow nodded, his eyes darting around as he covered the group with his handgun. Behind him, the rest of the group was on guard, Statyx bringing up the rear and performing the same scanning eye movements as his half-brother, with the rest all ready and waiting for something. Suddenly, Sonic stopped in the middle of the path. There was a rather large clearing ahead, with the palisade and such directly ahead.

"I don't like this. Everything about it screams trap." Shadow pointed out, his handgun covering the areas atop the castle.

"Snipers and other ranged soldiers could be hidden there, not to mention many booby traps either fitted into the roof or directly in front of that palisade. Chaos gates. Spike pits. Pitfalls. Water-filled holes. You name it, the area in front of the gate could have any kind of trap hidden there."

"Not to mention the possibility of troops hiding within the forest on either side. That's what makes this a tactical nightmare." Statyx mentioned, gesturing at the heavily forested areas to either side of the castle. Will stepped forward, cracking his knuckles loudly and maneuvering his swords to the small of his back.

"Allow me. If there's any kind of pit or hidden soldiers, I'll be able to find them." Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"How?" Will's smirk remained fixed in place as he tensed his body.

"Tunneling." With the one word reply, the blue echidna dived forward, disappearing into the dirt at a rapid pace. Shadow frowned, but simply turned and walked back into the forest a short distance. Most of the others followed him, but Sonic simply watched quizzically at the action.

"What's your plan?" Shadow turned to face Sonic, before spinning and grabbing him by the neck, dragging him back to the others.

"My 'plan', as you put it, is simply to let Will perform recon, then get word back to me on what's going on. With that info on my side, then I can make my decision on how to deal with this. Is that understood?" Sonic waited three long beats, watching Shadow closely, before breaking out into an outrageous smirk.

"Sure, _Commander_. I'm sure the trainees will be glad for your firm hand and rough justice." Shadow glared at Sonic once again, but simply turned and waited. He didn't have long to wait. A gentle vibration under the ground was the only sign that Will was going to reappear, which he did dramatically, suddenly surfacing directly behind Shadow.

"Empty. There's nothing in the courtyard, or above it. I semi-surfaced to check. Nothing. The entire yard is clear."

"Thanks. Now, here's the plan. We move as quietly and as stealthily as we can, get into the castle by alternate means than the gate, and then…" Shadow let his voice fade away. Most of the others simply looked at him dryly, understanding his intentions. Cookies, on the other hand, wasn't as used to his occasional flair for the dramatic.

"What's next, Mr. Shadow?" Sonic rolled his eyes as Shadow allowed himself to break out into a grin.

"Then, we find Scourge and his machine, and destroy it!" Everyone groaned at his attempt at dramatic flair, but quickly got moving. Will dropped back into his tunnels and disappeared, as Cookies leapt with considerable strength and started her way along through the trees. Shima nodded to Silver, who hurled her into the air with telekinetic power, allowing her to glide over the wall. Sonic, Shadow, Manic, Silver and Statyx all ran down different paths, arriving at the outside of the wall in two small groups.

"I just don't get why we didn't just Chaos Control in." Manic pointed out. Shadow sighed.

"Look, Scourge would be able to sense it coming a mile away. Even without the massive array of powerful items, he has a very strong connection to the Chaos Force, so any of us manipulating the Chaos Force to get in would instantly set off his senses." Statyx nodded.

"We're masking at the moment. Most of us more experienced fighters know how to diminish our impact into the Chaos Force to near negative levels. Cookies has similar power to a Chao, and due to her carrying a Chao with her, its more explainable," he explained to the perplexed hedgehog.

"But I've got Excalibur, and Will's got his mystic swords…and his connection to the Chaos Force," he pointed out. Sonic nodded.

"True, but Will's an exception. With all inhibitor gates closed, he almost generates a field that interferes with the Chaos Force around him. Ronan explained it some time, but I have no clue what he said, or what it meant. All I know is, it's something to do with a genetic alteration from his disease, or the gates, or something. As for you and Excalibur, well, we're taking our chances there." Manic opened his mouth to retort, only for an invisible hand to clamp his jaw shut and start to lift him off the ground. He turned his eyes to either side, and saw his father and Shadow both rising up in the same fashion, glowing with a turquoise aura. Statyx wasn't too far behind, floating on electrified air. Manic forced himself to focus as the top of the wall approached, trying not to imagine Moebian soldiers leaping out and striking him down where he floated. His hand tightened around the golden hilt of Excalibur, soothing his thoughts somewhat with the sharp edge of steel. However, as he reached the top he realized that his fears were unfounded, the upper reaches of the castle empty. Only a few seconds after he landed, Silver floated up beside the others, landing with a barely perceivable thud. Sonic pointed at a series of ropes leading down to the ground. Shadow nodded and grabbed a rope, pushing off and sliding down it at high speeds. Sonic and Manic both followed Shadow's lead, sliding down ropes to the ground. Statyx and Silver both jumped down and controlled their fall for a perfect landing – Statyx using his Air Skates, Silver with his psychokinesis. As both hedgehogs landed simultaneously, they glared at each other. Shima and Cookies became visible further around the dimly lit courtyard, each mainly visible as silhouettes. Suddenly, there was a loud, rhythmic clap coming from the main castle entrance. Almost as one, the Mobians turned to face the source of the noise. Striker, fresh out of armor but clearly visible to each and every person there, had a massive smirk on his face as he stood there, his arrogance shining through. There was a loud POP, as if something was exploding from under the ground directly in front of Striker. The dirt and dust the burst threw up temporarily blinded the team, but when it cleared, they could see a dark, hunched figure standing before the Moebian echidna, everything about him suggesting rage.

"Go. Scourge isn't in the castle itself, he's nearby. This is my fight." Will shouted over his shoulder, his voice full of steel. Shadow turned and started to skate off, the others gradually following him, all knowing that Will's tone left no room for argument. As they turned their backs, the sound of fighting started to fill the air.

"Well, there goes the element of surprise." Shadow muttered darkly. Sonic nodded as they raced around the outside of the castle, entering a second clearing on the far side of the castle grounds. Indeed, there stood Scourge and Miles, the former standing in front of a large machine piled high with all of the stolen power artifacts, the latter playing around with controls built into the back of the machine. Shadow quickly captured a quick few images using a camera built into a scouter, then beamed the photos back to Mission Command on Mobius.

"Ronan, I know you're there. What is that thing?" Within the scouter, direct feed of the main battlefield command, with a second screen centered on Ronan in Col'nesia, appeared. Ronan pursed his lips.

"Huh…so that's what happened to my toaster." Shadow raised an eyebrow as the people in the command module started shouting. The black fox quickly raised his hands to forestall the argument, motioning for the frustrated team in Mobius to calm down.

"That's a Mark Two ETD, or Energy Transference Device. Mark One was designed to be a weapon, where it would send a beam of high-intensity energy from Mega Coal into the target. It amplifies the energy to a greater point, allowing the beam more power than without the amplifier." Ronan paused and laced his fingers within each other, before continuing. "The Mark Two, the version before you, was designed to use the same amplifying power to induce a much more powerful transformation, again with Mega Coal. Finally, there was the much smaller Mark Three, which was the only one mass-produced. It was used as, well, as a toaster. I personally used the Mark Two prototype, the thing you see before you, because it cooked toast to perfection…" Shadow facepalmed as Tails and Commander Tower started yelling again. The Col'nesian grabbed a nearby bottle of his world's finest whisky and took a long draught from it, settling his jarred nerves from the noise.

"Quiet, please!" he shouted. Within a few seconds, the command team was silent, allowing Ronan to continue. "Basically, once that thing fires, you have to disrupt the process. Try not to touch the items being amplified and drained, because you'll fry like a chip in a deep fryer. Just…interfere with the beam or the machine itself. Try not to let Scourge get more than a minute or two's exposure."

"Why not? I understand interfering with the machine and such, but why not just stop him from getting any in the first place?" Ronan shook his head.

"Too far, and too risky. The entire thing is very temperamental. You're too far away from it, and even then, even Sonic couldn't move fast enough to stop it from firing in his Hyper form. Let Scourge get some exposure, stop the machine, then fight him." Shadow nodded his understanding, taking off the scouter.

"Let Scourge start the beam, but cut it off as quick as you can. Then we reveal what we've got." Sonic grinned, his fur flickering white with the thought.

"Finally, some action!" As quietly as possible, the team maneuvered into hiding places at the edge of the forest and waited.

Scourge flinched as his Chaos senses detected a quick burst of energy from the forest. Se savored its flavor. Everything about it screamed Sonic, from the speed of the burst to the very essence of the energy itself. He cursed under his breath as he stretched one final time.

"Now, Miles, if you'd please," he muttered dryly. Miles Prower glared at him for a few seconds, before activating the device wordlessly. Almost instantly, a bright, multicoloured glow formed around the device with a low-pitched hum, growing in intensity and pitch at insane speeds. Miles tightened his grip on the activator handle, watching the dials build. Suddenly, the primary dial flickered into the small green zone before the red. It was ready. Sweating profusely, Miles slicked back his sweat-drenched fur and pushed forward the firing lever. The beam leapt forward and struck Scourge directly in the back, engulfing him in a beam that rapidly changed color, once a second. Like the device, the hedgehog started to make a strange noise, starting in the lower pitches but rapidly climbing as the power entered his body. Suddenly, he screamed, but not a normal scream. This scream resonated to Miles' very core. The fox watched all the readings climb beyond all his predictions, beyond anything he could have imagined. Scourge's body was glowing now, his feet hovering centimeters off the floor. The flames on his jacket and his sunglasses were changing colour just as rapidly as the beam, with the colour change spreading to his fur.

"The power! It's so…intense!" Scourge roared, and both the Mobian team and Miles watched in horror as the true transformation began. Shadow quickly slipped his scouter back on and began to beam footage of this metamorphosis back to Mobius, where the entire command team, even Ronan, was paralyzed with shock and fear. It began with the arms. All the muscles in his upper arms bulged, tearing his sleeves to shreds with their expansion. His fur stood on end and crackled with electrical energy, running across his body with the ease only sparks have. He straightened, and a loud cracking noise rang out across the clearing as his spine elongated to its maximum length. His legs expanded to their own maximum, bulging out as much as his arms. Sonic's face was a mask of horror as the musculature of Scourge's chest suddenly changed from the normal, slight frame of a hedgehog to one more suited to an echidna even tougher than Will, one who worked out every day. His fur kept changing colour as his quills began to grow, elongate, multiply! It almost seemed impossible as they then started to fuse together, becoming similar to a combination of both Sonic and Shadow's Legendary Super Saiyan forms, forms neither hedgehog had used in a long time. The fur colour finally settled, platinum white with deep, purple streaks. Shadow finally remembered what Ronan instructed him to do, blasting the beam coming out of the machine with a powerful Big Bang Chaos Lance, strong enough to deflect the beam and shut the machine down. In a rage, Scourge spun to face Shadow as the rest of the Mobians present stood, revealing themselves.

"You dare stand before me? I am unstoppable! I am a legend! I am INVINCIBLE!" he roared. Sonic faced him, his body rapidly changing colour before settling on a similar white to Scourge as he entered his Hyper form.

"No, you aren't. You're a monster." The beastial Scourge laughed, his voice a lot deeper than before.

"Well then, little kiddies, run off home, because the big bad monster is coming to get you!" Shadow closed his eyes, his fur taking on the same platinum tone to Sonic and Scourge, although the streaks remained. Cookies revealed her Chao, which suddenly transformed into a pink Chaos 0-like form around her body as her stance shifted into a more unusual hand-to-hand combat stance. Manic's hands wrapped tightly around Excalibur, holding it aloft in one hand as golden armor, forged in Chaos flame, began to coat every inch of his body. Silver's hair elongated to a massive level, soon matching Scourge's for length as he entered his Time Warp form. Statyx tapped his inhibitor braces, and a green glow spread out over his body, turning gold at the same time as his fur. Shima looked at the others, confused. Sonic noticed she wasn't transforming, and frowned, throwing furrows through his white fur.

"Why aren't you transforming? You can't fight Scourge like that!" he burst.

"I need the emeralds before I can transform! I thought we'd steal them back, although when Knuckles charged me up, I had my doubts." Sonic grimaced, before flying down from where he floated, gripping her tightly by the shoulder.

"Get ready…now!" he shouted, transferring energy from his Hyper form straight into her body, awakening her Super form. In that instant, she transformed, with white and purple fur replacing her normal black and red. Instantly, the entire group whirled around to face Scourge. He started to laugh, a deep, corrupted cackle that echoed with his power.

"Give up, Scourge, you're outnumbered!" Shadow bellowed, his own voice echoing from his Hyper form's power. Scourge's laugh filled the entire clearing with its dark power.

"Scourge, just stop and face reason! We have strength, and united as one, we shall defeat you!" Sonic shouted. Scourge's laugh faded away, to be replaced with a crazed, Jokeresque grin.

"Yes, united you stand, but divided, you fall!" Sonic scratched his head, mulling that tidbit, but Scourge's next remark threw him off.

"You can't hit what you can't catch, and you can't catch what you can't see!" With that, Scourge started to walk towards the group, only to disappear.

"Sonic, it's time to show that trick the Guardian was working with you on." Shadow prompted. Sonic smiled and nodded his response, closing his eyes.

"Huh?" Manic asked. Statyx simply looked at the others, quizzical. Shadow sighed, before explaining.

"Sonic has a sort of slow-motion vision that he can use when running at high speeds. It's a sort of natural adaptation for his speed. Those of us that can reach those kinds of speeds normally use intense focus to see things, but even then we can't stay focused forever. Sonic learned to see in high-speed. Knuckles worked with him, and discovered that while Sonic's transformed, he gets massive boosts in that sight, including the ability to use that high-speed vision while stationary, allowing him to see in freeze-frames, and pinpoint things vibrating too fast for us to see." With that, Sonic opened his eyes, to reveal the most bizarre thing they had seen in a long time. Almost all of his red irises had disappeared, with his pupils taking up the majority of that space. His face was a mask of concentration as he focused, before blinking, returning his eyes to normal.

"Gone. I couldn't see anything." Shadow swore.

"Where could he…" he began, only for Cookies to disappear, her scream the only thing they heard.

Cookies slammed into a tree a distance away from the others, almost halfway around the castle. Scourge grinned, watching the Chao-fused rabbit panic.

"Shunpo. Better known as Flash-Steps. I move so fast, even Sonic or a high-speed camera couldn't see it. Now, I'll just pick you off, one at a time, and nobody's gonna be able to stop me." Cookies quivered as Scourge grabbed her from the back of the neck and hurled her overarm at another tree, letting her smack into it head-first, before pointing at her and grinning.  
>"Have fun in this little cage!" he crowed, with a cage of icy spikes encircling the young rabbit. "That little Spike Prison is a gift from the Frost Rubies. It doesn't hold much oxygen, and the spikes can cause a lot of damage… good luck getting free!" As Cookies screamed in fear, Scourge simply turned and used Shunpo again, teleporting away and leaving Cookies to her fate.<p>

Shadow spun, hearing a slight noise, only to see Manic disappear before his eyes.

"Scourge! If you're going to fight anyone, fight me!" he roared. Scourge's voice faded out of nowhere, cocky in its tone.

"When I'm ready to, I'll fight each and every one of you. For now, you must wait…and find me." Shadow's face twitched, a sign of his anger, before pointing at the others.

"Watch for him, so keep an eye on Shima. He's going for those with the lowest levels of power, so Shima's next, considering Manic and Cookies were…"

"WHAT?" Sonic burst, furious. "My son? That's it, Scourge, you're going down!" he roared, flying off. Shadow facepalmed at Sonic's impulsiveness.

"Guys, let's stick together. Sonic can handle himself…"

Manic bent his legs and pushed off the tree, using his armor to absorb some of the impact as he dashed towards Scourge, Excalibur in hand. His sword spun in neat circles as he neared his father's counterpart, but Scourge appeared unfazed.  
>"So you've got mystical armor and a fancy sword. So what? It's nothing compared to my awesome might!"<p>

"Wrong, Scourge. I shall end you, for the honor of my family!" Manic replied, his face hidden by the golden visor. Scourge grinned and cracked his knuckles, motioning for Manic to attack. The young armored hedgehog bolted, Excalibur swinging down in a fearsome overhead cut aimed at Scourge's shoulders. Scourge rolled to the side and hurled a sharp icicle at Manic, only for the youngster to catch it on a shield that emerged from his right forearm and block the strike.

"Give up, Scourge, and our revenge will be swift." Manic pressed, but Scourge was adamant.

"No way. If I do, you'll just ship me off to the No Zone again, and I DON'T want to see the interior of that prison again!" With that, the Moebian vaulted backwards in a silvery blur, his masses of purple-streaked hair forming an aura of sorts around him as a heavy heat haze formed around his hands.

"Meet a technique from the power of the Sol Emeralds! Flare Burner!" the insanely powerful hedgehog crowed, before blasting a near invisible beam of heat into Manic, superheating the armor and causing it to disintegrate as Manic lost the battle for consciousness almost instantly, dropping Excalibur as he slumped. Scourge looked at the child, and in anger at his similar appearance to the ruler himself, kicked him once in the ribs with great strength before disappearing with Shunpo once again.

Once again, Statyx and Shadow turned to face their half-sister, only to watch Shima disappear in a flash of white light. Statyx growled, his eyes narrowing to slits.

"They don't call me the Ultimate Guardian for nothing," he growled. Shadow nodded in agreement, motioning for Statyx to take point as sudden surges in Chaos Energy presented themselves from deeper into the forest.

"There." Immediately, Shadow, Statyx and Silver dashed towards the blasts in question, with Sonic doing the same from a different angle, all hoping that they could reach Shima in time.

Shima hurled a large Chaos Missile into the tree behind her, disintegrating it as she kept dashing backwards, holding Scourge off by dodging constantly. Scourge's face was contorted with rage as he kept trying to anticipate the hedgehog, only to have her dive backwards towards a rapidly-disintegrating tree.

"Would you stop that!" he roared, exasperated. The white super form slowed slightly, a goading smile on her face.

"Now, why would I do that? I figure that it's impractical for you to use that teleporting step technique in close-range, and as such, if I keep dodging, you'll eventually tire and I'll be able to beat you with one strike." Scourge's platinum fur ruffled as he laughed.

"Really. Considering that my form is a LOT more powerful than yours, you still think you could win?" Scourge stopped dead still, waiting for Shima to move.

"How about a little contest, Ultimate Lifeform. We all know that your base form beats mine in pure strength, but where does your Super form rate against my Prime form?" Shima coated her left fist in Chaos Flames of a bright neon-green caliber, her color signature. Scourge simply opened his hand, coating it in a glaringly bright coat of light.

"Straight from the Shining Relics… Light Palm!" Scourge dashed forwards, his light-coated hand trailing streaks of glaring power as he raced towards Shima, who performed the same move with her Chaos Fist. The two collided violently, and for a second, the attack appeared to have failed. Then, suddenly, with a blinding flash, Shima was thrown backwards into a tree, semi-conscious from the impact. Scourge turned away, content, only to find himself being restrained by a telekinetic aura projected by Silver as Shadow, Sonic and Statyx all prepared attacks.

"Really? THIS again, runt? What is it about me having a higher form than you that you absolutely don't understand?" Scourge clicked his fingers, freeing himself, only to find Statyx racing towards him, a fully-formed Mephiles Blade on his hand. Scourge barely seemed to react, blasting the ground directly in front of Statyx with a Charge Beam only for Statyx to disappear.

"Wha…?" the Moebian started, but the Ultimate Guardian reappeared directly behind him, ramming the light-based attack straight through Scourge's chest, his hand emerging from the other side. Statyx wrenched his hand free of the body, content to let it fall, but suddenly, Scourge stood, his wound instantly healing and leaving the surrounding fur with a red tint.

"You seriously view me as that much of a threat?"

"Yes. We do." Shadow responded, emerging over Scourge's shoulder and catching him around the head with a Blaze Kick, his momentum carrying him over Scourge's shoulder to land in front of him. Scourge simply regenerated the burn damage from Hyper Shadow's flaming kick, and laughed.

"Is that seriously all you have? I'm disappointed!" he crowed, standing completely still and letting Hyper Sonic's supersonic headbutt simply rebound off his muscle-plated chest. "Nothing any of you could do will make me budge, so give up now, while you still have the chance!" As Scourge raised his arms in a gesture of his power, a black-shafted arrow with blue, red and green feathers on the end slammed into his shoulder blade, embedding itself. Growling in surprise and pain, Scourge turned to face the shadowy archer, only for a second arrow to strike him in the abdomen, just beneath his ribs. The Moebian leader cringed as he yanked the first arrow out of his shoulder, then focused on the second as he stood, the wounds now little more than red stains on his platinum fur.

"Hey, Scourge, normally I would kick your ass, but it's not Saturday, so I won't bother," a shadowy but recognizable voice called.

"But it IS Saturday!" Scourge roared.

"Really? Looks like you're in trouble." A rustle in the trees gave away the presence of the hidden archer. The powerful Moebian spun, suddenly seeing a familiar hedgehog with a brilliant blue aura.

"Blood? I thought you weren't interested in coming to fight Scourge!" Sonic exclaimed. BloodSonic laughed, pointing at his transformed allies.

"Catch your breath. I'll delay him with Defaran's power!" Sonic's muzzle faded to the same color as his Hyper form's fur.

"Careful, Blood, remember last time you went Defaran?" Again, the hedgehog, his hair styled differently and wearing new clothes, not to mention the complete blue color, sniggered.

"Oh, Sonic, I've learned to restrain Defaran since then. You're looking at his power, but with me in control. Call this my…Blazing Blue form!" With that, Blood revealed a very unusual weapon. It had the blade of a scimitar, colored in black and edged in red. However, the more amazing side was the handle. Long enough for four hands, plus black thread with red rings stitched into it, it resembled a giant's weapon, or even that of a polearm. Blood didn't seem to care, holding it in a similar pose to a greatsword.

"Let the moon shine through, Tsukiakara." Instantly, the entire weapon formed a translucent black aura around itself. The ancient hedgehog wasn't finished yet, however, whipping the blade back.

"I'd like to see you block this one! Getsumen Suraisu!" Blood crowed, swinging the sword forward and propelling a slice-shaped wall of the aura, now opaque, directly into Scourge. The attack forced the Prime-formed being down to his knees, a large slash mark appearing over his chest before rapidly healing.

"So, you have a spirit sword. A zanpakto, I believe they are called. Impressive. Still, dodge this little icy attack. Algorstorm!" Scourge roared, and icicles began to rain upon the area. Shadow, Sonic and Statyx each formed a Chaos Shield and seemed content to wait the rain of icicles out, while Blood used Tsukiakara's Night Drive aura to shatter icicles as they fell towards him. Silver, on the other hand, went on the assault.

"You should know, Scourge, that any item with mass can be grabbed with telekinesis, and that includes these icicles!" he shouted, gripping one of the falling spears with his telekinesis, before hurling that icicle straight at Scourge. The King of Moebius simply dodged by stepping to the side, before disappearing in a white flash again. Blood looked surprised.  
>"Shunpo? How the hell did he learn Shunpo without a zanpakto?" he burst incredulously. The others looked at Blood, astonished, but Silver kept his focus up, increasing his cyan telekinetic aura to its max.<p>

"You don't scare me, Scourge. Give up now, or I'll simply rip you limb from limb with the true power of telekinesis!"

"Really now? Too bad! From the Chaos Emeralds, direct to you…Chaos Blast!" Scourge suddenly reappeared behind Silver, and unleashed a wave of gold energy from his body in a hemispherical appearance, blasting Silver head-first into one of the trees, instantly knocking him out and forcing him to power down. Statyx instantly went on the attack, unleashing his powerful Flames of Iblis attack into the monstrous Moebian, hurling him backwards. Scourge slammed into the upper reaches of a tree, and slid down, but his body quickly ripped with energy and he awoke, the bloodstained patches of fur healed and his strength restored.

"Thanks! I needed that recharge," the Moebian king jeered. Statyx's eyes shut to mere slits as he focused, forming light around each hand before racing directly at Scourge, throwing punch after punch with his Solaris Fist technique. Scourge let each strike hit, and with each blow, Statyx looked like he was going to win. Then, Scourge turned the tides. Shaping his hand into a claw-like shape, shadows began to ripple down the length of his hand, forming a spectral claw, before bringing it up and blocking Statyx's next punch.

"Not bad, Sparky, but let me demonstrate that everything, even someone of the light such as your Super form can be beaten by the shadows, like those from the Nega Emeralds… feel this Shadow Claw!" he roared, slashing the claw forward and entering the offensive. Now Statyx was thrown onto the defensive as Scourge attacked, the long black claws scraping closer and closer to his body as he defended, simply using his Solaris Fist to block or smack away the claws, which constantly increased in speed as Scourge slashed, his rage guiding his strikes and enhancing his strength, putting Statyx onto the back foot. The golden super form only just managed to leap backwards as Scourge's shadowy claw scraped his chest, only for a follow-up left hook to throw him backwards. Scourge stepped forwards, focusing on Statyx.

"This ends here." With that, he started to run around the Ultimate Guardian, his body forming into a blur as Statyx ineffectually threw lightning-fast punches, kicks and even the Flames of Iblis, to no effect. Then, as he began to tire, Scourge suddenly appeared from behind and rammed his shoulder directly in between Statyx's shoulder blades, transferring all of his momentum into that small area. Statyx was suddenly thrown forwards, slamming into a tree and passing out all at once. Scourge spun to face the remaining three.

"Well, it's down to three choices. Who do I thrash next?" he muttered, as Sonic suddenly clicked his fingers.

"That's IT! I figured it out!"

"Wha…?" All three of the people within earshot looked at Sonic, with Scourge looking annoyed, the two Mobians more quizzical.

"I figured out why we're losing. We were fighting as individuals. Scourge said it himself, divided we fall. By fighting him on our own, because only one of us gets the chance to fight him at a time, he's been able to pick us off one by one." As Sonic explained, his quills began to curl upwards and his fur started turning pink. Shadow instantly picked up on Sonic's idea, and his own fur began to change to the same tone of lilac.

"So by joining bodies into one…"

"We fight as a unified front!" Sonic exploded, his Ultra transformation complete, Shadow's barely a second behind. "Ready, faker?"

"I'm going to ignore that one, Blue, for the sake of this technique. Ready." The two hedgehogs closed their eyes, and each crossed their arms across their own chests.  
>"CHAOS CONTROL!" they roared, the scream reaching over the entire forest. Blood and Scourge both watched in surprise as Sonic and Shadow glowed pure white, and their bodies seemed to flow into one another as a typhoon of energy engulfed the duo. The light reached a blinding pitch, and Scourge found himself covering his eyes for protection. When the energy started to die down, he uncovered his eyes, and froze. Before him, stood a single being where the two had stood barely a second before, his fur the same pink as the Mobian duo's Ultra forms, with the quills a combination of the two forms. It bore Shadow's streaks on the top and bottom quills, the others untouched. The rest of the body was indeed between the two, Shadow's eyeliner-like red marks on the back part of each eye, Sonic's smirk adorning the face. The chest had Shadow's remarkable fur, while the arms had Sonic's skin tone with red marks underneath Shadow's inhibitor rings, now showing an unusual dual-slash design – one black, one blue. The being spoke, the voice being both Sonic's and Shadow's at once.<br>"I am Ultra Shadic, the fusion of two of Mobius's finest heroes! United, we can't fail!"

Blood shrugged.

"Meh, you could, but that's where I come into it." Blood held his right hand out in front of him, raising it up to his face gently as Tsukiakara's blade gently sunk into the soil before him. He suddenly whipped his right hand out behind his body, and Scourge was amazed by the formation of an intimidating mask over his face. Blood's voice emerged from behind the mask, dark and echoing.

"Surprised? Meet the power of a Hollow!" With that, Blood's mask revealed a mouth, and fired a bright blue beam out of that point, slamming into Scourge and sending him flying backwards. "That's right! I'm the only Blazing Blue Hollow ever to exist! Against a fusion and a Vizored of this caliber, there's no chance of us failing!" With that, Blood flicked Tsukiakara back into his hands, holding it in a new stance as Shadic entered a combat stance.  
>"Together, we shall beat you." Blood crowed. Suddenly, a massive energy presence emerged from the castle, and began to approach their direction at great speed.<p>

"And should we fail; the final member of our team shall end your reign with ease." Shadic finished.

"What? Who is this final team member?" Scourge burst, astonished by the sudden change of fortune before him.

"You know him already, Scourge. Knuckles' son is no pushover, and now he's coming for you." With that, Shadic and Blood both began to run towards the massive-haired Moebian. Scourge shifted his stance, his unease forgotten as he reminded himself that he was still more powerful than any of them.

"Let's settle this. That way, I can savor in the defeat of all my hated foes in this last week!" With that, he dashed towards them with an instant sonicboom, and the battle shifted into the next level.


	19. Revelation

**Chapter Eighteen: Revelation**

Will faced Striker, their eyes meeting. With that, Will lowered his head and dashed, opening the first gate to increase his speed as he rammed his head into his counterpart's chest, transferring the kinetic energy buildup from his body into Striker's chest, sending him flying. Striker threw his hands out behind himself, using his arms in a risky maneuver to stop himself from colliding with the wall. Upon impact with the wall, Striker simply raised both arms and unleashed a rather large Flamethrower from each hand as he propelled himself backwards down the corridor. Will grimaced and dashed into the flames, only to find each group of brilliant flame to be, in essence, a trick. The flames, while large and threatening in appearance, were nowhere near as powerful as they appeared. Comforted by this knowledge, Will leaped, using Chaos energy to dash in midair to behind Striker, dropping into a powerful leg sweep. This time, Striker simply jumped, the flames dissipating as he cleared Will and hurled a ball of lightning down at the Mobian, before using the distraction to bolt down the passage. Will growled, forming a shield of green Chaos energy before him to absorb the cerulean lightning, before racing after his counterpart, who had hidden in a room at the end of the corridor. Will emerged into an atrium, where he could see Maddy strapped to a column on the far side. Striker was nowhere in sight.

"Maddy!" Will burst, ecstatic. His beloved girlfriend looked up, and her face reflected her new-found hope. She smiled, bruises framing her face as she didn't even try to get up. Will simply ignored his surroundings and raced to her side, only to be clobbered from the side by Striker, who had hurled a seed straight into Will's right arm, letting the Seed Bomb detonate on contact to throw Will into a pillar. With that, the powerful Moebian approached, his visible eye now a fully-formed Sharingan.

"Face it, Will, you have lost. Yield, and the end will be brief." In response, Will suddenly launched on a horizontal axis, spinning sharply with his dreadlocks extended as points, once again slamming Striker in the chest with his spindash.

"Oh, I don't think so, Striker. Let's settle this," he retorted, his own eyes quickly taking on their full first-tier design. Striker simply yawned in response, but Will blinked simultaneously, avoiding the drowsiness from the yawn. Will tried leaping towards Maddy, but Striker simply stepped on a nearby tile, and laser walls leapt up in the echidna's path, stopping from reaching his beloved. Will suddenly screamed an inarticulate cry and hurled a rather large crimson fireball straight at Striker, who split the orb with a single snap of his fingers, before closing his eyes and hardening his fur with heat. Will's animal rage had complete control now as he rapidly opened the next two gates, but he suddenly stopped. Striker blinked and reached for his eyepatch, temporarily blinding himself. In that short amount of time, Will had drawn his Guy'viroth broadsword and saber, and was dashing towards his enemy with a fervor and almost monstrous rage that caused Striker to flinch, slowing down his reflexive leap into the air to prepare his next move. Will stopped and pointed his saber at the blue Moebian, which proved to be a big mistake. Striker coated his body in lightning, and dived straight at Will, aiming at his legs. The blue echidna barely dodged the cerulean strike, with some errant strikes leaping into the sword, giving Will a rather painful shock. Will spun to face his near-identical foe, his eyes now in the Mangekyo Sharingan stage. Striker mimicked the transformation with his own eyes, revealing the Mangekyo Sharinshotogan once again. Without a single word being spoken, a struggle of blasts erupted. Each unleashed a powerful Amaterasu at the other, the massive black flames striking each other and forcing each other back and forth. Will attempted to aid his blast onwards with a reinforcing burst of flame, but Striker outsmarted him, using his Sharinshotogan to unleash a powerful cutting wave through all three strikes. Will suddenly countered the slicing pulse with a perfect Kamui, the vortex absorbing the remaining energy from the flaming attacks and the razor-edged wave before collapsing on itself. Striker frowned and powered down his eyes, the Shotogan remaining like always in his left eye. Will did the same, his hazel eyes revealing a fiery fury, but his outward shell having lost the bestial rage.

"So, it's obvious that this battle of powers isn't going to be settled like this." Striker pointed out. His counterpart nodded.

"I concur. I'll smash the truth into your skull the hard way." With that, Will's body began to glow as he opened the fourth inhibitor gate. The first thing to change was the black streaks in his fur, which became a bright yellow. His eyes became a sharp green, with his gloves seeming to glow from within as they turned a brilliant gold, similar to his streaks. His fur finally began to change, becoming an amazing tone of orange. With that, he turned and began to laugh, and started to see the hope start to return to Maddy's eyes. Striker simply met his gaze.

"I don't know what truth you speak of, but I'll happily match this power." This time, it was Striker's turn to embrace energy. His streaks turned a pale yellow-green, with his gloves turning a similar tone. His eyes took on a dramatic sky-blue hue, and Will felt his confidence start to slide as Striker's transformation finished with its vibrant yellow fur.

"Let's dance," he taunted. Will nodded in reply, and the two super forms charged at each other. There was no decorum, no holding back. Each simply gave it their all. For Maddy, an observer, it was hard to track the two echidna-shaped blurs as they attacked each other, ramming, punching, kicking and blasting each other so rapidly the eyes could barely follow them. To the battlers, however, there was too much adrenaline to think. Punches were blocked, kicks were caught and returned, blasts were obliterated, all without thought on either part. Will tried unleashing an explosion of flame and smoke, but Striker simply extinguished the flames with his Shotogan. The golden Moebian tried to unleash a powerful swarm of sparks, but a single flaming kick from Will simply caused them to disappear. The fight was balanced completely, although both could tell that this fight was in Will's hands. Without his eyepatch to cover the purple Shotogan, Striker lost energy at an astounding rate, even when not using it's slicing blasts. Suddenly, a girl with a similar appearance to Maddy, but with black streaks dyed into her quills, burst in, brandishing a hammer.

"I've got your back, honey!" she shouted, swinging her hammer haphazardly. Will suddenly changed his tact, launching an attack on the girl.

"NO!" Striker shouted, diving in front of the blow, forcing him to his knees as he powered down. Will raised an eyebrow and powered down as well, forcing Striker to look at him.

"Striker, you've been deceived. Scourge isn't your father." Will said, gently. Striker glared at him.

"I know that, idiot. He adopted me." Will shook his head, and tried to stay calm as he met Striker's glare.

"You're my counterpart, so listen to me for once. Scourge isn't your father, he's been manipulating you. He killed your biological father."

"No! You lie to me, Mobian." Striker screamed, his body starting to break down into spasms of pain and grief. Will grabbed the back of Striker's head by the dreadlocks and forced him to look his counterpart into the eyes.

"Listen to me! Your father was Anti-Knuckles. Scourge lied to you, and he's been manipulating you ever since to restore his power!"

"I…I…I…" Striker started, his hands quivering as he tried to contain his grief. The girls shot Will a dirty look, but quickly set to the task of settling Striker down. Will looked at her directly, opening two more gates and beginning to transform once again.

"Once you've settled him, could you free Maddy for me? I've got a mission to finish." The girl opened her mouth, but Will met her gaze lightly and as kindly as he possibly could, halting the transformation. "

Oh, _fine_. I'll let my counterpart go soon enough, once Striker's pulled himself together once again." Will nodded and turned to leave, but the girl stopped him.

"Look, Scourge may not be honorable, but he's still my biological father. So…" The young guardian nodded, waiting for her to finish. Maddy's counterpart seemed to shuffle a few thoughts around, before speaking.

"Look, just don't kill him, alright? Even for all he did to this world, all the darkness he brought the multiverse, he doesn't deserve to be removed from existence. I'm Shady, the youngest of his three kids with Rosy. I'll spring my counterpart, but you get through to my father that there's more to life than power." Will nodded once again, with a brief salute to Striker as he turned and left, repositioning his swords so all four blades were in easy access as he started to dash towards the battle, letting his body follow its own path in transformation, ready for the biggest fight of his life so far.


	20. Destiny's Battle

**Chapter Nineteen: Destiny's Battle**

The forest rung with the hum of steel spinning at high speeds, and the deep, dark laugh of Prime Scourge as the empowered Moebian dueled both Ultra Shadic and Blazing Blue Hollow Blood, his bare hands easily blocking Blood's zanpakto, even with its aura. On top of that, he had greater stamina than Ultra Shadic, who was starting to tire under the exertion. Sonic and Shadow may have trained themselves to enter Ultra-level forms without expending rings at a massive rate, but they hadn't used fusion in a while, and as such Shadic was lacking any form of unity in his assault. Scourge's laugh increased as he sensed the approaching power coming in his direction, a fresh mind he had only battled once before – Striker's counterpart. Without dropping his guard, the platinum uber-haired hurled a small ball of amber goo at BloodSonic, who sliced the gunk in half with Tsukiakara.

"Really? Scourge, that's just sad. Distractions don't work for you." Blood quipped, launching another razor-edged slash with his blade.

"Who said that was a distraction?" Scourge shot back, the ooze moving on its own accord and binding Blood's feet to the ground. The ancient being exploded with a stream of curses, slicing at the amber jelly which simply didn't want to break apart to let him free. With one foe distracted, Prime Scourge transferred all of his attention to Ultra Shadic, who had remained alert and moving the entire time, making the most of the Moebian dictator's distraction to prepare an attack. Scourge lashed out with a perfect golden copy of Silver's telekinesis, but the lilac fusion seemed to anticipate that and simply teleported out of harm's way. The platinum Mobian growled, then tried to blow Shadic away with a single Chaos-enhanced Roar. Again, Shadic dodged with ease, before suddenly emerging directly behind Scourge. Then, the disharmony struck again. Shadic hurled a kick and raised a block half-heartedly, his guard lowered. Scourge made the most of that, dropping his shoulder and diving backwards, tackling Shadic to the ground and pummeling him with a series of rapid fists to the face and chest. Shadic used Chaos Control to warp behind Scourge once again, but this time, Scourge was prepared, multi-colored energy rippling into his hands. The Moebian pivoted and unleashed a powerful Chaos Blast Beam straight into Ultra Shadic's chest, hurling him backwards into a tree directly in front of a newcomer, leaving the fusion to separate. Scourge used this break to analyze the being's appearance. His fur was a bright pinky-red, with a large amount of quills which bore only the slightest resemblance to dreadlocks slicked straight backwards, the majority of the hairstyle more hedgehog like. His skin was a dark blue, while the sclera of his eyes was neon green, his iris and pupils both bright orange. His gloves were the same color as his eyes, as was the binding on his shoes, which were bright gold. The being growled, his stance shifting from the traditional combat idle stance of a hedgehog to the much more hunched, arm-focused positioning of an echidna. Prime Scourge's brain clicked.

"You're Will! I was expecting a transformation, but what on Moebius do you call that?" Will didn't respond verbally, instead shifting his stance slightly and unleashing a powerful gout of flame from both hands. Scourge stepped back, checked the positioning of his feet, and launched his own assault, a solid stream of dirt and mud from the blood spilled by the others, with his own blast easily countering Will's fiery attack. Instead, the echidna vanished, only to reappear behind Scourge, slashing with a rather large guy'viroth broadsword, a second sword leaping from its scabbard to rest in his off-hand. Prime Scourge shook his head.

"I was expecting a challenge. Shadic spoke so very highly of you." Even as he spoke, Scourge could hear Blood finally free himself from the gooey mass and start racing in towards the Moebian dictator, possibly with a readied killing slash with his sword. Scourge started to prepare special defenses, but Will chose to speak.

"This form is more than strong enough to defeat you. It's called my UltraBlazing form, and with it, you shall discover that I am more than a match for you. For Dreads, Striker and everyone else whose lives you have ruined, I shall fight. For them, I shall win." Prime Scourge raised an eyebrow, impressed by the youth's fighting spirit, but slightly worried by his words. As he prepared a retort, he stepped lithely to the side and let Blood go flying by, his sword still swinging in the middle of a slash aimed to decapitate. As soon as the ancient hedgehog saw the riotously colored echidna, he smirked and turned to face Scourge once again.

"What say we teach Prime Steak here not to mess with Mobius, Will?" the hedgehog taunted, his Hollow mask trying to intimidate the white-furred hedgehog. Will's own smile emerged, seeming to split his blue muzzle in half.  
>"Fine by me." With that, the duo attacked, Will aiming high with a shattering punch, Blood going low with another Cero. Scourge leapt over the blast from the Vizored hedgehog, using Will's swords as pivot points to lift himself into the air and hurl himself over the echidna teen's body, shattering both blades with pure strength in the process. Will hurled both ruined swords to the ground and knocked Scourge's legs from underneath him with a powerful windmill kick, leaving Prime Scourge open to a Getsumen Suraisu launched from Tsukiakara, Blood preferring to strike from range now rather than close-in and block Will's physical assault. Scourge struck the ground hard, but vanished barely a second later in a flash of white light.<p>

"Shunpo. He's simply moving faster than we can physically view." Blood explained. Will's eyes returned to their normal hazel for barely a second, before transforming into his Sharingans. Without flinching, he jumped and grabbed a tree-branch above his head. He swung for a few seconds, before hurling himself forward, foot first before slamming into the back of Prime Scourge's head, knocking him forward just as the overpowered Moebian reappeared.  
>"Ugh! How in Chaos' name did you manage to do that?" he groaned for a few seconds, before throwing himself into the air with a push-up. Will struggled for a few seconds, his feet tangled within Prime Scourge's impossibly long quills, before Scourge backflipped, landing with all of his weight and razor-sharp quills pointing down on Will. At least, that was the aim. Barely a second before impact, Will got his hands down above his head, and with pure physical strength, enhanced by his transformation, he held Scourge aloft on his legs before simply falling backwards, once again slamming the platinum hedgehog into the dirt, leaving him spitting dust as Blood glided clean over the branches overhead, landing and gripping Scourge's neck with a tight, two-handed crushing grip.<p>

"Two minutes, Scourge, then you black out, power down, and end up back in the No Zone or another prison, wherever the others feel you belong. Personally, I'd rather you struggle, because I can simply add another minute, and let your life return to everyone else." Blood spat, his words striking Scourge as hammer blows as the blood began to pound in his head.  
>"Look….there….your…..counterpart…." he croaked. Instantly, Blood's head flew up, scanning the forest for his psychopathic counterpart, his grip on Scourge loosening rather considerably. Gasping in a sudden breath of air, the silver transformation unleashed a small Chaos Burst, channeling enough Chaos Energy through his body into Blood to cause his mask to break and him to pass out. With that, Scourge stood, staggering slightly from the lack of oxygen. He took a few pacifying breaths, preparing himself. Then, he saw Will. The echidna was still standing there, eyes closed, a strange curved sword with an intertwined dragons motif in his hands. Scourge smirked, preparing himself.<br>"Get ready, runt. This one's going to hurt!" he roared, dashing forwards towards UltraBlazing Will with fist cocked. The youth took these few seconds to twist the hilt of the Dao blade, splitting it into two separate swords, both with a single dragon now adorning the blade. Scourge kept approaching, barely noticing the sudden series of flashes in orange coming from the young echidna. Instead, he launched his punch blindly, only to find it blocked by a metal of unprecedented hardness. Indeed, there stood Will, adorned with red-orange armor covering most of his body, with only his muzzle still visible. He smirked, and spoke three words.  
>"Are you worthy?" he murmured. Instantly, the look in Scourge's eyes changed from flat-out rage to an out-of-control insanity. His body retained its power and transformation, but his stance changed.<p>

"Oh, I'm more than worthy, kid. I conquered this world with my bare hands! I conquered both of these worlds as a kid, barely older than you! But no, Sonic kept beating me. Every single time I tried since I escaped the No Zone the first time, my damned counterpart keeps showing up and stopping me, getting me thrown back in that clink. Now that I finally have the power to finish him, you're the only thing that stands in my way. I WILL BE KING!" With that, Prime Scourge attacked. His punches suddenly tripled in intensity, trying to break through the armor purely with punches, kicks and jabs of various kinds. However, Will still hadn't powered down, so with a combination of the strength and speed of his UltraBlazing form plus the defense and shielding provided by his armor, he stayed standing, the armor barely denting as Scourge's assault continued. Suddenly, Will spoke as he hurled Scourge backwards with a burst of Chaos Energy, letting the Moebian slam into a tree. Scourge was cringing and could barely focus as Will approached, the armor disappearing as he recombined the swords and slid them into their sheath on his back. Standing before the being, knowing that Scourge could snap him like a twig in that form, Will raised his head and paralyzed the Moebian emperor by meeting his eyes directly, his Sharingans seeming to spin as Scourge began to freeze up. The echidna spoke, his voice not his own but ringing with power, the same power Scourge had felt many years ago when he first touched the Master Emerald.

"You stole this power. All of it. While some has joined you permanently, I see it fit to restore you to the way you once were and strip you of this vile form once and for all!" With that, Will walked a short distance away, but Scourge found he still couldn't move as Will powered down completely. The echidna turned and faced Scourge once again, his right hand raised and pointing directly at the Moebian's chest.

"The servers were the seven Chaos! Chaos is power enriched by the heart! The server existed to unify the Chaos! By these powers, I take back all you have claimed as your own!" he cried, his voice once again layered with that deep resonant power. Scourge screamed as golden light surrounded the duo. He could feel his power, all of it, disappearing, being sapped away by the echidna. In turn, Will could feel himself changing. His body was growing stronger, and his dreadlocks longer. He could feel quills burst from the back of his head, plus another quill burst out over his left eye, obscuring it's vision. As the glow faded, revealing Scourge in his base form, quivering and shaking, Will could see a mass of bright blue quills rolling halfway down his back. His dreadlocks were completely that same color, and he could see clothes, a black denim jacket and jeans of the same make. He shuddered under the strain of the energy, before teleporting over to the Energy Transference Device and it's payload of energy items, before closing his eyes and releasing the torrent of power he had absorbed. Instantly, all of the energy, flowing through a passage outside of his gates, began to flow into the gemstones. One by one, the emeralds and crystals began to glow once again, while the items like Mega Coal and other plain stones and items of power simply seemed to ripple with an energy haze as Will pumped all of the absorbed energy back into the drained items, his body returning to its original state. With the excess power remaining in his system from his transformation, he reached out and touched each mind of the team in turn, giving them the slightest spark of Chaos Energy to return them to the land of the conscious. He turned, surveying the battlefield and spying his teammates slowly but surely walking up. Suddenly, a pair of bright blue arms wrapped themselves around his chest from behind. Will laughed and managed to turn within the tight hug to embrace Maddy, her tears of joy falling on his shoulder as the sun began to rise over Moebius and the impending cleanup efforts.

Perched in the tree that provided the greatest view of the battle arena and the embracing figures, the wolf known as Flare gestured towards Will, his face passive but his eyes burning with inner fire.

"You see, Crisis? He is the one. He took that much energy, and his future transformation shone through from the overload. He is the one with the power of True Chaos. He is the one you need to train." His companion, a cheetah with pale yellow fur and tan spots, nodded.  
>"Indeed. I know not to question your knowledge of the future, flow-walker. I am of the past. You are a time-traveller. But if I am right, and my greatest enemy is stirring within his prison, that boy and his allies better be able to prove themselves in combat against him. Flare, I trust that you can breach the issue?" the chocolate-brown wolf with black &amp; red spiky hair nodded. Crisis smiled faintly.<br>"His power is right. You are right. Let us only hope he can handle it." With that, a small ripple appeared within the environment. The cheetah started to step through, but turned to face the wolf again.

"Flare, you have done well not to get involved. You could not have afforded to influence this battle." Flare nodded once again to his benefactor as he began to fade into the threads of time and space. Crisis took the final few seconds to snap a salute, before venturing into the portal to return him to his hideout. Flare returned the salute, and focused more on home, to where his own team needed him. Soon enough, he could focus on these events, but for now, at least the next few months, Will had enough to focus on.

Positioned in another nearby tree, a pair of hedgehogs sat, watching Scourge. One of them raised a radio to his mouth, but the other, a red hedgehog with a hairstyle like one of Blood's old ones stopped him.

"Are you sure this is what they wanted to know? Are you sure they wanted Scourge to lose? Reaper, this could get us on her dark side. We don't want to be there." Reaper, a hedgehog who's quills were covered by the hood on his jacket simply shrugged.  
>"We have to risk it. Phantom didn't want us out here for nothing, and she briefed me. This is what she expected, Scorch. I understand your concern, but it's not needed." Scorch looked unconvinced, but Reaper activated his radio.<p>

"Ma'am, this is Reaper. The king has fallen. Using multiverseal tracker tag now." From that, they received a quick trio of clicks over the radio, signaling them to proceed. Skillfully, Reaper threw the tag into the air towards Scourge, then guided the tiny black circular pin to embed itself in the Moebian's stomach. Scourge stirred slightly, but returned to his broken shaking as his counterpart began to approach.

"This is Reaper. Mission complete. Returning to base," the lead hedgehog radioed. Again, the duo received the triple clicks, so Reaper gripped Scorch's wrist, revealing a Trollish Emerald in the other.

"Chaos Control!" he muttered, and the two Trolls disappeared.


	21. Proposal

**Chapter Twenty: Proposal**

Sitting under a majestic Oak tree near Doctor Kintobor's tower, Maddy found herself admitting that she'd never had an experience quite like it. From fighting in a war to being kidnapped by her boyfriend's counterpart, the past week had provided more excitement and fear than she felt she had needed, but at least now she could relax. The blue hedgehog snuggled further into the arms of the echidna relaxing underneath her, her head against his chest as the two simply watched the sky. Nearby, she could see Scourge, tied to a post while the people who had planned everything discussed his fate, but despite that, she refused to pity the monster that her father's counterpart was. Will turned slightly, then sat up, prompting Maddy to do the same. He seemed nervous, but Maddy figured being in a hostile world would do that, despite being protected by massive shields.

"Maddy, I was thinking…you know…Ah, how do I say it?" Will muttered. Maddy tilted her head slightly, and gestured for him to continue. Finally, he sighed and reached into his pocket.

"Maddy," he started, pulling a tiny black box with a familiar gold hammer emblem atop from his pocket, "Will you marry me?" With slight difficulty caused by his mitten-like gloves, Will managed to open the ring box, revealing the most beautiful thing Maddy had ever seen. The ring itself was gold, but the diamond set in the middle was flawless, cut to perfection, with not a flaw to be seen. Her face lit up, and finally, she managed to utter a single "Yes" before engulfing her fiancé with a massive hug. Nearby, Sonic smiled. He liked Will, and felt even better knowing that his daughter was happy. Finally, he heard the noise he had been waiting for, a Zone Portal opening.

"You're about a week too late for the battle, cop." Sonic commented, exchanging a fist-bump with Zonic, his Zone Cop counterpart.

"I had Dr. Nega and a bunch of theft complaints to deal with, Sonic. Bunch of regions lost their items of power to Scourge, but we came under attack before we could get here. Question is, should we reimprison Scourge in the No Zone? I mean, we've imprisoned him there three times, and he's escaped every single one." At that point, the others, whom had arrived from Mobius and Col'nesia soon after the battle finished and had been discussing Scourge's fate approached.

"We've got an idea on that front. Apparently, Ronan had a prison built in Paradox Slide Zone, a world whose temporal fluctuations drove the original inhabitants mad. It has access to each and every other zone, but cannot be accessed from outside without a portal generator. Not to mention the entire prison is built from Echidna iron." Knuckles gestured to the hedgehog in question, before smirking. "Now all we'd need to do is get him there." Ronan nodded, but Zonic looked perplexed.

"What's keeping him from breaking out?" To that, Ronan already had an answer.

"One, inhibitors will keep his powers under control. Two, despite the fact that many groups have dimensional engines, the zone itself constantly shifts. I'm the only person with the equation to track it for access. Finally, the zone's version of Sonic, called Paradonic, is more than just insane, he's paranoid. If he sees Scourge free, which is likely considering he lives in the area that controls the portals, he'll round the hedgehog up and inform us. I'll provide you the access equation, Zonic, for your escape risks. No rehabilitation here, simply a truly inescapable prison." Finally, the Zone Cop agreed, and a pair of guard robots grabbed Scourge and started lugging him towards a Vorstec portal.

"I'll be back! I'll break all the zones to my will, once again, and you shall all bow to me!" he roared, only for a taser attached to one of the two guard 'bots to jab him, rendering the corrupt Sonic unconscious. The others watched him get dragged from the zone, before Commander Tower and his team bid the others farewell and returned to Mobius. Zonic gestured to the array of items.

"My people will return most of these to where they belong, so you can take the ones from your world back, I think." Sonic and Knuckles both nodded, with Sonic turning his head to see Miles Prower in a heated conversation with Blood.  
>"…I swear, the boy had control of my every thought! I tried to resist, but Striker had me…" he overheard. Finally, nobody could delay any longer. Despite Dr. Kintobor still requesting to treat the combatant's wounds, the way he had treated Will's, Sonic managed to convince him to use his Globe Posts and send them home. One by one, the Mobians went, with people continuing to shuttle emeralds, rings and other items back home, with Maddy the last person to cross the threshold. Will, on the other hand, waited.<p>

"Not leaving, Will?" the kindly doctor asked. Will shook his head.

"I've got one last thing to do first, then I'll get home under my own power. My dad knows, he'll tell the others." Dr. Kintobor looked skeptical, but did nothing to delay the echidna as he headed within the hospital tower.

He was aware of who he was, and who the girl was normally next to him was. He could feel parts of his body he had never felt before, parts that had been beaten to a pulp by his counterpart, plus his mismatched eyes ached after overuse of their power, but he refused to speak, to focus. Instead, the echidna was still within himself, mulling over what he had been told, over what had broken his brain. Suddenly, he felt a sharp shaking forcing his mind up and out of his self-created prison.

"Striker, snap outta it!" he heard his counterpart saying. Finally he agreed to it, opening his visible eye to see Will standing before him.

"Come to finish the job?" he croaked. Will looked at him, with the look carrying over the key point, that he was pathetic. Striker accepted it.

"Dude, I spoke to Shady, and to others who really care about you. You want to die, don't you? I humiliated you, broke you, and you can't see the point in living any more, can you?" The echidna remained stonily silent as Will continued.

"Striker, I have only one demand of you, the demand of the victor over the one he defeated – live. You are my counterpart. For all intents and purposes, that makes us brothers. You forcing yourself to death isn't the way anyone wants you to go. Scourge might be gone, but this world is still unstable. Scourge's defeat probably brought around warlords and others whom are trying to replace them." Now his counterpart was starting to get to him. "Striker, there are no other Guardians in Moebius. Scourge had them all killed. For a job like reigning in the warlords and bringing balance to the world, it's a guardian that is needed. What are you? A Guardian, or the one who is guarded?" Finally, Striker opened his mouth, and let himself speak.

"Why…why are you showing kindness to me? I killed your best friend. I could have killed your girlfriend. I am you, and perform all the darkness you could do. Why spare me Scourge's fate, or that of my father?" Will shrugged.  
>"You were a soldier, following orders. I guess I was, too. We aren't so different, both controlled by our emotions." Will walked around to where Striker could reach, and offered his counterpart his hand. "So, are you going to live, brother, or am I going to have to tell Shady to find a new boyfriend?" Shady. She was the pivot. Youngest child of bitter enemies, born of a night of drunken panic. He couldn't bring himself to harm her any further than either of her parents had. He sat forward slightly, and grasped his counterpart's hand with a strong grip.<p>

"You have a deal…brother." The two shook, and then Will gave a strange, dry smile. "Well, I got engaged to Maddy today… good luck with Shady, my friend." With that strange point, the echidna left, leaving Striker in his bed, alone, but now he didn't retreat into his thoughts, but smiled himself. Yes, he would live, and he would atone for the damage he did. He would become greater than ever, and he would prove that he could be an ally to his counterpart, the most unusual Moebian ever. Yes, that was him, and he found that he enjoyed the idea.

Will left the castle and found Ronan waiting around for him, the Vorstec portal set up and waiting for him to return to his homeworld.

"How'd my Exa-Diamond ring go, earlier?" he asked. Will smiled.  
>"She loved it. Thanks for that. I mean, I couldn't ask her to marry me with anything less than a gem of the same perfection as her…" Ronan made a gagging motion, so Will took the message. "Anyway, I wanted to thank you, Ronan. For all you've done in the last year. You saved my life, then spent months in prison on war crimes charges on a heat of the moment decision." Ronan shrugged.<br>"Eh, guess it's what I'm good at…but I expect an invite to the wedding. You Mobians haven't really left me enough time to get my business back in order, what with your request for a diamond ring and locking me up, so give me some time before the next time you need help, will you?" Will laughed, and shook his friend's hand.

"Until next time, Ronan." The echidna said. Ronan simply nodded once, and smiled in return.

"Good luck keeping the girl happy, and don't dwell too much on Kyle. His memory touched even me, and that's not just because we're related distantly." Will nodded back as Ronan stepped into the Vorstec portal, leaving the young guardian alone. Finally, he closed his eyes and Chaos Controlled away, leaving Moebius silent…for now.


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Scourge's eyes opened. That, in itself, was surprisingly fast for someone who had been beaten to a bloody pulp; most people had believed that it would take days, even weeks, before the sedatives pumped into him by the medics wore off and he healed. Blinking, he looked around at his confines. Designed to hold one, plus be used as an interrogation suite when needed, the cell was described as being luxury compared to lower-risk inmates, but even then, it was still rougher than the No Zone. Suddenly, a woman appeared, flanked on either side by a Mobian. The one on her left was a white hedgehog, with Sonic-like quills hidden by his hooded jacket, while the second was a burly echidna, whose broad physique and green fur made him instantly catch the Moebian's eye. But it was the woman who held his eyes. She was average height, with short, Amy-like quills, plus vibrant pink eyes. Scourge tried to look further down her body, to take in what he expected to be an attractive body, but as he moved his neck, a shooting pain shot down his neck.

"Damn. Inhibitor collars," he grunted. The woman smirked.  
>"Jacob, help our friend up." The echidna immediately did so, his large hands seeming to crush the Moebian's shoulders as he hoisted the hedgehog into the air, planting Scourge on his feet and letting him regain his balance before releasing him. Scourge rubbed his sore shoulders.<p>

"Thanks, I guess. What are you, the woman in charge here? Planning to rehabilitate me? It's been tried before." The woman laughed, her somewhat deep voice making her seem even more menacing, as did her dark attire.

"In a way, I do seek to rehabilitate you, Scourge, but I have nothing to do with this prison. We work for the True Lord of Mobius, and we've been watching you for quite some time." The woman patted the hooded hedgehog beside her on the shoulder. "Reaper here got footage of your recent battle against a variety of powerful Mobians, and we were impressed, despite your loss, which was foreseen." Scourge shivered a sense of foreboding fresh in his mind.

"So, what, am I supposed to clap and cheer at this news? Are you going to break me out, or am I going to be stuck in here as you plan?" The woman clicked her fingers, and a portal opened, a second Scourge emerging.

"Both. This clone was created from a genetic sample we acquired. He shall take your place, and you shall come with us. We have big plans, and we need your help in their implementation, in exchange for you retaining your command of Moebius when we control the Prime Zone." Scourge scratched his chin, before his signature smirk broke over his face.

"Where shall we discuss these terms?" The woman laughed, and gestured to the portal.

"Come with us, and you'll find out." Scourge stroked his chin for a few seconds, before walking forward towards the portal, the echidna following him closely. Finally, the woman gestured for him to enter.  
>"Call me Phantom, Scourge. I have the feeling that soon enough, you shall meet the true lord of Mobius for yourself, once we free him from a prison much harder than this to break out of." With that, she entered the portal.<br>"What kind of prison is harder than this?" Scourge wondered aloud, as he followed Phantom through, flanked by her lackeys, and leaving his clone imprisoned.

Shadow entered the dark, dingy laboratory, making sure to keep his eyes on the treacherous scientist before him as he was lead towards an experimentation table.  
>"Shadow the Hedgehog. I have heard your request, unusual as it may seem, and I think I may hold the cure for your unique problem. Please, lie down on the table." Self-consciously, Shadow lay down, with restraints snapping onto his arms and legs. Doctor Fineventus smirked darkly as Shadow closed his eyes.<p>

"My immortality, Doctor. I've spoken to beings like BloodSonic, whose agelessness caused them to see many families created, grow old, and die, without him joining them. I don't want that to happen to me and my family. I love them, and couldn't bear to see them join Maria in the beyond as I stay physically the same." The white-furred echidna nodded, sliding a pair of earphones into Shadow's ears. "These should help you relax. The process of removing your immortality through force is painful, and this music should aid you in making it through the operation." Shadow nodded, and the doctor turned to the two hedgehogs on the side, standing next to a set of microphones and a computer. They grinned, and flicked a switch.  
>"Welcome to Mephiles and Nazo's insane music radio show! The show that plays music that will drive you insane!" Mephiles grinned.<p>

"Oh, don't worry about us, we've got earplugs in, so we don't hear a thing! Oh, and Rageik, just a warning, this should give you a chance to break free." Nazo chimed in, before the duo eyed the computer track list.

"For our next song, we shall play an old classic, used to drive Shadow insane last time! It's your favorite, the Numa Numa!" Instantly, Shadow's body arced, his fur changing colors to a random mix of yellow and blue, with his streaks teal and his muzzle blue & pink.

"GAARBBLARF! Not…again…" he moaned as his eyes changed, his sclera turning blue while his irises stayed red. Instantly, the two Demons raced over to Shadow, watching him arc and struggle until a white glow covered his body.  
>"Oh boy, here he comes!" Nazo muttered, Chaos Energy rippling at his hands as he prepared to defend against an assault. The glow then split from Shadow, who had turned back to normal and passed out on the table, before taking on a familiar form. The hair was outrageously large, while the body was quite recognizable as Sonic's. The being, trapped in the form, roared incoherently for a while, with the two demons cringing as they recognized a couple of noises as ancient Demon curses. Finally, the being calmed himself and turned to face the trio. Doctor Fineventus turned, made some excuse, and left, leaving Mephiles and Nazo with the being that burst from Shadow.<p>

"Lord Rageik! Finally, we have freed you once again!" Nazo blustered. The recolor glared at him.  
>"I can see that, Nazo! You and Mephiles Junior there took your bloody time, too! It's been what, twenty more years?" Both of the duo looked at each other sheepishly, neither willing to face the powerful beast before them in combat. Finally, Rageik sighed.<p>

"Well, this time, I'm more coherent in thought, but this recolor body…it's so hard to focus! But Shadow there…his brain is silent. I take it he's once again purging the Numa Numa from his thoughts… and leaving himself open for possession." With that, the recolor approached Shadow, placed his hand against Shadow's arm and turned back into a white silhouette, merging with Shadow's body. This time, there was no dramatic change, no sudden transformation or change of color, but Shadow sat up, tearing the bonds apart with his impressive strength before standing back on his feet. He pulled the earplugs from his ears, and smirked. This time, however, the smirk wasn't normal. It was malicious, conveying darkness.  
>"Now, Mobius shall bow to its true lord and rightful ruler!" he laughed, the voice of Rageik carrying from Shadow's voicebox. "Now, let us begin planning. Tell me of what you have so far…."<p>

* * *

><p><em>AN_: _The final part is a reference to the fan universe I share with the flash movies by BloodSonic1, one of my good friends irl. In one of his older episodes, during Fusion Saga, his second main series, Shadow had a pair of earplugs implanted in him by Nazo, who then played the Numa Numa alongside Mephiles straight into Shadow's brain - exactly like the ending of this chapter. However, instead of releasing Rageik, Shadow went insane and attacked everyone for a while, stealing the Sol Emeralds from BloodSonic, which Rageik used_ _to escape.__ So...yeah, if you want to check out those flashes, do so. I think it was episode two or three, but I can't remember for sure. Oh, and reviews are always appreciated. _


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